The Heart Institute

The Single Ventricle Reconstruction (SVR) Study, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, involves Childrens Hospital and 14 other members of the Pediatric Heart Network, a consortium of major pediatric cardiac institutions.

In HLHS, which is fatal without corrective surgery, the left ventricle is missing or underdeveloped. The study’s goal: determine which of two shunt positions, if either, offers advantages for patients undergoing the Norwood Procedure, the first stage in repairing a single ventricle heart. It involves enlarging the aorta, opening the wall between upper chambers of the heart and inserting a shunt or small connector to deliver blood to the lungs.

Each child in the study is randomly assigned a shunt position. The surgeon can, however, override that decision. Participants will be followed for 14 months, with plans for long-term follow-up, given funding. Research Coordinator Nancy Pike, RN, PNP, PhD, is working to enroll 35 families at Childrens Hospital by this fall out of a total of 466 nationwide.

Clinical Research is performed within The Heart Institute and directed primarily by Drs. Vaughn Starnes, the Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and at USC, and by his Dept. members Drs. Mark Barr, Winfield Wells and John Nigro.  Dr. Starnes is involved in a number of Clinical trials, such as barrier films to prevent adhesions during open-heart surgery (with Dr. Wells) and the use of Viagra to treat pulmonary hypertension (with colleagues in Cardiology).  Dr. Nigro is exploring new surgical techniques for the repair of congenital cardiopulmonary defects in neonates, and Dr. Barr is working with Dr. Wu to advance organ preservation technologies and to develop new strategies for the treatment and prevention of chronic rejection in heart and lung transplant patients.