Adult Congenital Heart Disease

Advances in medical and surgical technology have made it possible for children with congenital heart disease to not only survive but thrive well into adulthood. However, as these individuals get older, ongoing care to support their health is crucial. 

Most defects require lifelong follow-up care even if a patient does not have symptoms. The optimal care requires specialists who understand the underlying congenital heart disease and its interaction with adult-onset disease processes. 

The number of specialists formally trained and board certified in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) are rare, and only a few centers have dedicated programs offering care to this unique patient population. Because of this, less than 10% of the adults with CHD receive a gold standard of care.

University Health’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program aims to change those statistics and offers a gold standard of care to adults with CHD.

Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program at University Health

University Health ACHD program is led by the only formally trained and board certified adult congenital cardiologist in South Texas region. 

We offer a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Each patient is evaluated by an ACHD specialist and, when appropriate, a cardiac surgeon, an imaging specialist and an interventional cardiologist with training in congenital heart disease. This integrated approach ensures that each patient’s disease is treated individually, with that particular patient’s needs and physical condition in mind.  

The inpatients are treated at University Hospital, a combined adult and pediatric facility that allows the specialists from both adult and pediatric side to work collaboratively to provide optimal care to an individual patient.

Our Services

The adult congenital heart disease program at University Health’s Heart and Vascular Institute provides comprehensive care by coordinating and collaborating in many different areas such as:

• Heart surgery for congenital abnormalities
• Interventional cardiology
• Cardiopulmonary exercise testing
• Cardiac imaging including congenital echocardiography, CT and cardiac MRI
• Clinical cardiac electrophysiology and complex ablations
• Transition of adolescents with congenital heart disease into adult congenital heart disease (ACHD)
• Cardiovascular genetics
• Heart failure
• Cardiovascular connective tissue disorders
• Pulmonary hypertension

We also collaborate with our nationally recognized Pregnancy and Childbirth team to provide pregnancy counseling, genetic testing and care for people with high-risk pregnancies due to CHD.

Adult Congenital Heart Defects We Treat

Our cardiology team treats a wide range of adult congenital diseases, which include but are not limited to:

• Anomalous pulmonary venous return (partial and total)
• Aortic stenosis
• Aortopulmonary (AP) window
• Arrhythmia
• Atrial septal defects
• Atrioventricular canal defect
• Bacterial endocarditis
• Bicuspid aortic valve
• Coarctation of the aorta
• Double outlet right ventricle
• Double inlet left ventricle
• Ebstein's anomaly
• Genetic and familial aortopathies
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
• Marfan syndrome
• Mitral valve disorders
• Patent ductus arteriosus
• Pulmonary arterial hypertension
• Pulmonary stenosis
• Single ventricle defects
• Tetralogy of fallot
  
• Transposition of the great arteries
• Tricuspid atresia
  
• Truncus arteriosus
• Vascular ring
• Ventricular septal defect