Research

The Stanford Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Lab research program is focused on three aspects of surgery for congenital cardiac disease:

Development of surgical and technological approaches for cardiac surgery in the fetus.
These projects include the study of techniques to prevent fetal-placental dysfunction associated with fetal cardiac bypass and identifying specific conditions for protecting fetal myocardial function during open cardiac surgery. Cardiac bypass in the fetus is much more complex, because the placenta serves as the fetal “lung” and fetal-placental gas exchange is extraordinarily sensitive to perturbations in blood flow, blood pressure, or even umbilical cord stretch or cooling. Further, since the fetal heart has an immature calcium metabolism, conditions normally used to temporarily paralyze the heart for surgery are toxic to the fetal heart, and we are examining improved approaches to cadioplegia of the fetal heart.
Reduction of morbidity associated with pediatric cardiac surgery patients.
Currently, the major emphasis is on the development of approaches to the protection of the developing neonatal brain from cerebral injury during complex repairs requiring cardiopulmonary bypass in neonates.
Bioengineering of heart valves and vascular tissues for pediatric applications.
Tissue engineering is an emerging area of inquiry of the Lab that is initially focused on bioengineering of pediatric heart valves that can self-renew as well as grow with the child. This new area of emphasis of the Lab is supported in part by a recent endowment funding the Alex Vibber Fellowship.