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Change in the management of pediatric heart surgery at the Children's Heart Center Vienna

On 1 January 2024, Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimpfer will take over the Professorship of Cardiac Surgery (§98) at MedUni Vienna. He will also take over as Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital.

The long-standing Head of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Children's Heart Center Vienna is thus returning and will continue the success story of surgery for congenital heart defects with a new team.

With the extremely experienced and internationally renowned specialist for pediatric heart surgery of the highest complexity, the care of all patients in Austria with congenital heart defects is thus secured in the long term.

The Children's Heart Center Vienna is already the only location in Austria to offer the entire spectrum of pediatric cardiac medicine, from complex neonatal heart surgery to organ replacement. In the future, even gentler treatment methods are to be established, but also Austria-wide cooperation is to be expanded. See also: News MedUniVienna.

The appointment of Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimpfer as Professor marks a generational change in cardiac surgery in Vienna. The former Head of Cardiac Surgery and great promoter of pediatric cardiac surgery, Prof. Dr. Günther Laufer, takes over as interim Head of the Division of Cardiac Surgery in Graz. The previous head of the pediatric cardiac surgery program, Assoc. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dominik Wiedemann takes over as Head of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital in St. Pölten.

The Department of Pediatric Cardiology at the Children's Heart Center Vienna would like to thank all former and active surgical partners and wishes them every success in their new tasks.

On September 29 (World Heart Day 2023), a charity variety show was held in aid of the Vienna Children's Heart Center. A sensational evening made children's and adults' eyes light up and shine. The total proceeds of the evening went entirely to the Children's Heart Center Vienna to bring light and joy to children and families in difficult situations, THANK YOU to Papierfabrik Variete, THANK YOU to the artists and THANK YOU to the Dorffner family, who made everything possible. 

Change at the head of pediatric heart surgery at the Children's Heart Center Vienna

Dear Colleagues!

Dear parents and patients!

As of 01.05.2022, the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery of the Children's Heart Center Vienna presents itself with a new management.

Mr. Assoc.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dominik Wiedemann has been a member of the pediatric heart team since 2017 and was trained in the surgery of congenital heart defects, especially critical heart defects in newborns, by the previous head, Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimpfer. In recent years, Prof. Dr. D. Wiedemann has already performed a large proportion of the operations and has now been appointed Head of the Pediatric Heart Surgery Program by the Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery, Prof. Dr. Günther Laufer.

Assoc.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Wiedemann is a senior physician in the Clinical Department of Cardiac Surgery and also heads the mechanical circulatory support program (VAD (“artificial heart”) and ECMO), so that we will continue to have an experienced team available for children with heart failure.
This means that the Children's Heart Center Vienna can continue to offer top-quality pediatric cardiac surgery with new management.

Invitation to the fetal medicine training course: Focus on the heart and updates from first trimester screening

Time: September 25, 2014 5-8 p.m. Location: Fetomed Döbling Auditorium of the Private Clinic Döbling (Outpatient Center) Entrance Heiligenstädterstrasse 46 1190 Vienna

Heart valve replacement with bio-valves for congenital heart defects

Reduction in the number of re-operations at the Children's Heart Center Vienna through the use of decellularized homografts.

Find out more here.

Event: Heart children for children after heart surgery

February 26, 2019 at 7 pm in the art space of the Ringstrassen Galerien

Prof. Dr. Manfred Marx- Chairman of the Initiative Kunst hilft Kindern would like to invite you to this event. There is also a project “Heart children for children after heart surgery”. Start on 25.2. at 3 pm. Further information can be found in the program or at www.oegkm.net/kuki

Innovation for the “little ones”

(Vienna, 10 July 2012) Two children with a hole in the atrial septum (ASD) had developed a progressive enlargement of the heart. Under the direction of Ina Michel-Behnke, Department of Pediatric Cardiology at Vienna General Hospital and MedUni Vienna, a new closure system (GSO occluder) was inserted minimally invasively into the two patients using catheter technology.

The implant has only been approved in Europe for a few weeks and represents further progress in the treatment of congenital heart defects. The material of the “umbrella” is a frame made of platinum and nickel-titanium, the actual sealing membrane is made of polyfluorotetraethylene (PTFE). The frame construction forms two disks that fit snugly against the dividing wall of the heart.

Implantation takes place via a tiny incision in the groin. Over the course of a few weeks, the patient's own inner heart skin grows over the implant so that it remains securely in the desired position and no more blood exchange takes place. The advantage of this new umbrella is its very flat design, which further reduces the risk of clots forming. The flexible construction adapts to the movement of the heart with every heartbeat and damage to the thin walls of the child's heart is practically impossible. The implants are available in different sizes and are selected individually depending on the child's height and weight as well as the size of the heart wall defect (ASD).

The examinations of both patients, a 6-year-old from Lower Austria and a 16-year-old from Vienna, went without any incidents and the patients could be discharged home after just a few days. The umbrella technique has been used for many years and can be performed safely in the hands of experienced pediatric cardiologists. The fact that it was children in Austria who were the first to benefit from the advanced technology with the innovative implant is a great relief for the children and their parents, as open heart surgery could be avoided.

RESEARCHER OF THE MONTH December - Dr. Andreas Hansik

Congratulations from the team at the Children's Heart Center.

RESEARCHER OF THE MONTH December - Andreas Hansik

The “Researcher of the Month” jury presents this month's award to Ass. Prof. Dr. Andreas Hanslik on the occasion of the paper “Monitoring unfractionated heparin in children - a parallel-cohort randomized controlled trial comparing two dose protocols” published in the top journal “Blood ” (IF 11.8).(2) The publication was also highlighted by the editors in an editorial: Inside Blood Commentary: 'aPTT in children receiving UFH: time for a change?'(1). The published results are part of the HEARTCAT study (Heparin Anticoagulation Randomized Trial in Cardiac Catheterization), which was designed by Dr. Hanslik and the scientific working group for paediatric haemostaseology and carried out at the Department of Paediatric Cardiology at the University Clinic for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Thromboembolism in children and laboratory monitoring of heparin

Thromboembolism (TE) is rare in healthy children, but is a relevant complication in children with serious underlying diseases, particularly congenital heart defects. The most important risk factors for TE in children are exogenous triggers such as central venous catheters or cardiac catheter examinations, which are necessary for operations and diagnostic measures. Age-specific coagulation physiology also contributes to the risk of thrombosis, especially in infants, and influences both the effect of anticoagulation and the laboratory tests used to monitor these drugs.

The HEARTCAT study was a randomized controlled trial investigating heparin for primary thromboprophylaxis during cardiac catheterization and interventions. Children from neonatal to adolescent age were studied and two heparin dose protocols for heparin were compared with regard to the occurrence of TE and bleeding complications, with clinical results published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. The study design was remarkable in that the elective setting of heparinization during cardiac catheterization in children allows for controlled dose comparison and serial pharmacokinetic blood sampling. The study can therefore be considered a model for heparin therapy in children of all ages, who can only be subjected to limited systematic examinations and regular blood sampling in routine clinical practice due to their serious illnesses.

In the recent Blood publication, the pharmacokinetic properties of heparin in children and its effect on various laboratory parameters for heparin monitoring (aPTT, ACT, anti-Xa) were investigated. In addition to a strong age influence of the heparin effect on the various laboratory parameters, a dose dependence of this age influence (more pronounced at low doses) was shown. Although all three tests in principle differentiated well between the two heparin dose protocols, the correlation between the tests was low. The aPTT, which is most commonly used worldwide for heparin monitoring in children, proved to be of limited value as it correlated poorly with the other two tests and showed predominantly supratherapeutic or unmeasurably high values. Overall, the study was able to show that previous considerations regarding heparin monitoring and the generation of therapy ranges in children, and particularly in infants, need to be questioned.

Scientific environment

Dr. Hanslik is part of the scientific working group for paediatric haemostaseology, which belongs to the Department of Paediatric Cardiology/ Paediatric Heart Centre Vienna. The working group (headed by Prof. Dr. Christoph Male) deals with both thrombosis and bleeding tendencies in children. In this working group, Dr. Hanslik has developed his own research portfolio on the topic of TE in children with heart disease, supervising both PhD students and diploma students. The results of the studies conducted on this topic have so far led to five top publications as first and last author, an invitation to the annual conference of the German Society for Thrombosis and Hemostaseology as key-note speaker, as well as the award of the Science Prize of the Austrian Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. (1,3,4,5,6) In his research work, Dr. Hanslik cooperates with both the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and the Institute of Pharmacometrics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, on studies relating to TE in children with heart disease.

About the person

Dr. Hanslik was born in Vienna in 1979 and studied medicine at the University of Vienna after completing his civilian service with the Red Cross. In 2005, he received his doctorate from the Medical University of Vienna sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publica and completed his studies with a dissertation at the Department of Pediatric Cardiology at the University Clinic for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The results of this dissertation were published in the leading pediatric journal Pediatrics at the time.(7) Dr. Hanslik completed his clinical training as a pediatric specialist as well as his training as an additive specialist in pediatric cardiology both at Vienna General Hospital and at the Center for Congenital Heart Defects in Bad Oeynhausen/North Rhine-Westphalia, whereby a significant part of his training included pediatric intensive care medicine as well as cardiac catheter examinations in children.

Publications on the topic:

1. Monitoring unfractionated heparin in children - a parallel-cohort randomized controlled trial comparing two dose protocols. Hanslik A, Kitzmüller E, Tran US, Thom K, Karapetian H, Prutsch N, Voitl V, Michel-Behnke I, Newall F, Male C. Blood 2015;126(18):2091-7.
2. Inside Blood Commentary: ‘aPTT in children receiving UFH: time for a change?’ by Riten Kumar and Sarah H. O’Brien. Blood 2015;126(18):2075-76.
3. Anti-IIa for monitoring unfractionated heparin in children - results of the HEARTCAT study. Hanslik A, Kitzmüller E, Tran U, Thom K, Karapetian H, Prutsch N, Voitl J, Michel-Behnke I, Newall F, Male C. Accepted for publication in J Thromb Haemost 2016.
4. Incidence of thrombotic and bleeding complications during cardiac catheterization in children: comparison of high-dose vs. low-dose heparin protocols. Hanslik A, Kitzmüller E, Thom K, Haumer M, Mlekusch W, Salzer-Muhar U, Michel-Behnke I, Male C. J Thromb Haemost. 2011; 9:2353-2360.
5. No impact of endogenous prothrombotic conditions on the risk of central venous line-related thrombotic events in children.  Thom K, Male C, Mannhalter C, Quehenberger P, Mlzoch E, Luckner D, Marx M, Hanslik A. J Thromb Haemost 2014; 12:1610-5.
6. Incidence and diagnosis of thrombosis in children with short-term central venous lines. Hanslik A, Thom K, Haumer M, Kitzmüller E, Albinni S, Wolfsberger M, Salzer-Muhar U, Male C. Pediatrics 2008; 122;1284-91.
7. Predictors of spontaneous closure of isolated secundum atrial septal defect in children - a longitudinal study. Hanslik A, Pospisil U, Salzer-Muhar U, Greber-Platzer S, Male C. Pediatrics 2006; 118; 1560-1565.

47th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology

June 6-9, 2015 Weimar, Germany

http://www.kinderkardiologie.org/dgpkJahrestagung.shtml