Cardiothoracic Surgery

The Cardiorespiratory Unit is one of the world’s largest paediatric cardiovascular and respiratory centres. We provide the complete spectrum of child heart surgery services for children with congenital and acquired heart disease, as well as specialist tracheal surgery, thoracic surgery.

We perform the highest number of surgical procedures in the UK and Ireland. GOSH has one of the largest centres for paediatric heart transplantation in the world.

Moreover, we are the only national centre providing treatment for complex tracheal stenosis in children with outstanding results for treating international referrals.

In recent years, we have treated more children with congenital heart disease than ever before, and with excellent results. Our aim is to continue to provide a child heart surgery service that is recognised internationally and to continue participating in improvements in the care of children requiring this surgical management.

Please be aware that Heart and Lung transplants are not available through International and Private Care, for overseas patients.

Outcomes

The 30-day survival rate for paediatric cardiac surgery is a nationally accepted benchmark that is used to judge outcomes. Predicted patient survival is determined for all centres using a calculation called PRAiS2, which adjusts for the procedure, age, weight, diagnosis, and co-occurring conditions (co-morbidities).

The 2021 National Congenital Heart Disease Audit Report (2019/20 data, NICOR: National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research) shows that in the last 3 years, all centres have performed such that 30-day survival was as predicted or better than predicted, given the alert and alarm control limits, for aggregated outcomes after all surgical procedures in children.

The Cardiothoracic Unit at Great Ormond Street hospital has consistently delivered outcomes that are higher or much higher than predicted using the risk model described above. This is indicative of good performance and represents an opportunity for sharing optimal practice across specialist centres.

• We perform over 500 cases of cardio-pulmonary bypass and 150 cases off-bypass every year
• In the last three years, our 30-day survival rate of cardiac surgery patients is 99.5%