Using a combination of surgical procedures developed over the
last 11 years, surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital have
established a new approach for rebuilding the heart in children
born with a severe heart defect called hypoplastic left heart
syndrome (HLHS). This "staged left ventricle recruitment" (SLVR)
strategy uses the existing standard single-ventricle treatment
for HLHS and additional procedures to spur the body's capacity
for healing and growth and encourage the small left ventricle in
these children to grow and function. Members of Boston
Children's Departments of Cardiac Surgery and
Cardiology—including Sitaram M. Emani, MD; Wayne Tworetzky, MD;
James E. Lock, MD; and Pedro J. del Nido, MD—reported their
results to date with the SLVR strategy in the November 6 issue
of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. HLHS is a
rare but severe congenital heart defect in which the left
ventricle, the chamber of the heart that pumps blood out into
the body, does not develop properly. The majority