Congenital heart defects account for five times more deaths
annually than all childhood cancers combined. Alison Marsden, an
assistant mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at the
University of California, has developed a unique set of computer
modeling tools that are expected to enhance pediatric surgeons'
ability to perform heart surgery on children. Marsden's work
focuses on designing and using simulation tools to provide a way
of testing new surgery designs on the computer before trying
them on patients, much like, for example, engineers use computer
codes to test new designs for airplanes or automobiles. Certain
severe forms of congenital heart defects leave a patient with
only one functional heart pumping chamber. These "single
ventricle" defects are uniformly fatal if left untreated, and
require a patient to undergo multiple heart surgeries, ending
with a Fontan procedure. In the Fontan surgery the veins
returning blood to the heart from the body are directly
connected to the arteries that sen