Doctors pioneer world-first heart repair surgeries to save children’s lives

Duke Health's team of doctors has pioneered groundbreaking heart repair surgeries to save children's lives, including a world-first living mitral valve replacement procedure. This innovative surgery not only saved a child's life but also advanced the field of organ stewardship.

The team was able to perform the living mitral valve replacement on an adolescent girl who received a full heart transplant with a healthy valve donated from another individual. This technique, known as heart reanimation, involves temporarily reanimating a donor heart outside the body using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to assess its viability for transplant.

The success of this procedure has led to improved outcomes for patients, with one recipient of a reanimated donor heart thriving since the surgery. Duke Health's commitment to innovation in pediatric heart surgery, led by pediatric heart surgeon Dr.

Douglas Overbey, has resulted in multiple successful procedures and has the potential to save many young lives by utilizing viable pediatric donor hearts that are currently going unused.