Our CVICU Team’s Research That Can Benefit Your Child

Our Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) doctors teach at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and conduct research to gain a deeper understanding about heart and pediatric heart disease. Because of this, they can develop innovative patient treatments or preventive techniques that can benefit your child with heart disease.

Our CVICU is also a good place to incorporate the learnings from other research work that is performed by our larger Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center team.

Some of our research projects include:

  • Improving dosing of commonly used medications in children.
    • Pharmacokinetics of etomidate in children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery.
    • Methadone versus morphine pharmacokinetics in children after cardiac surgery.
  • Improving quality of care for children with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.
    • National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative to decrease mortality through real time multicenter quality improvement.
    • Evaluation of Y-graft Fontan baffle.
  • Improving postoperative care of children after cardiothoracic surgery.
    • Cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy in children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery.
    • Randomized clinical trial of aminophylline to prevent acute kidney injury following cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.
    • Lung reperfusion injury following the unifocalization surgical procedure for TOF/PA/MAPCAs.
  • Participating in national quality improvement programs for children with congenital heart disease.
    • Pediatric cardiac intensive care research consortium and data standard repository.
  • Improving outcomes for children with cardiac disease by studying myocardial injury at the cellular level.
    • Molecular and cellular changes associated with hemodynamic insults and identification of pathways critical to the transition from a compensated state to heart failure.

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