Center for Congenital Heart Disease Overview

Mayo Clinic Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery

Pediatric heart specialists at Mayo Clinic Children's Center have extensive experience treating babies, children and teens with congenital heart disease. Learn more about Mayo Clinic's approach to care.

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Hope and healing for little hearts.

Joseph Dearani, M.D., Cardiovascular Surgery, Mayo Clinic: Congenital heart disease is common. Approximately one in a 100 live births have a congenital heart defect, so it's really one of the most common congenital birth defects. And the good news for parents and families is that the majority of defects can be fixed, oftentimes with one procedure alone and they can go on and live a very productive, normal or near-normal quality of life.

Jonathan Johnson, M.D., Pediatric Cardiology, Mayo Clinic: When my kids are seeing a team here at Mayo, I know that they're going to get the best care. I know that they're going to get the best expertise and I know they're going to be able to find that expert that they need to figure out what's going on and how best to treat them.

Dr. Dearani: If I look at my own practice, I do a lot of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. And I've gotten to do that because I learned it all in the adult population, which is where it started. So doing robotic heart surgery in teenagers is something that you can't get in a children's hospital because they don't have the technology available to them where we could do that here.

Dr. Johnson: Mayo Clinic pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery excels at the rare, complex, unique patients where you need a multi-disciplinary approach from different specialists, different surgeons, all looking at, at the child and trying to figure out what the what's the best path forward for the child. And that's what we're known for our worldwide.

Dr. Dearani:The faculty and all of the allied health, in terms of nursing staff in the ICU and respiratory therapy and all of the other important members of the medical team, have this enormous history of experience. So that's what you get when you when you come to Mayo Clinic. You have clinicians and health care staff that are just really experienced taking care of these defects and that's probably one of the strongest reasons to consider Mayo Clinic.

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Children and adults with congenital heart disease need complex, multifaceted care for continued survival and quality of life. Mayo Clinic doctors have deep experience in treating people with congenital heart disease. Our doctors have been treating all types of congenital heart defects in children and congenital heart disease in adults since the clinic started and have been operating on people with complex congenital heart disease for more than 60 years. Our doctors use advanced technology and techniques, including robot-assisted minimally invasive heart surgery.

At the Center for Congenital Heart Disease, doctors trained in heart conditions and cardiac imaging (cardiologists), heart surgery (cardiac surgeons), anesthesia (anesthesiologists), imaging (radiologists), obstetrics and gynecology, and other areas work together to diagnosis and treat people with congenital heart disease. The staff treats adults with congenital heart disease at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Your health care team talks with you about your heart anatomy, your future health and your risk of heart conditions. And depending on your condition and situation, they also may talk with you about exercise, employability, insurance and pregnancy. At Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, you may be referred to the Cardiovascular Obstetrics Clinic if you're pregnant.

Each year Mayo Clinic helps more than 1,500 children with congenital heart disease. Most are cared for by doctors trained in treating children with heart conditions (pediatric cardiologists). The Mayo Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota includes a cardiovascular unit dedicated to pre- and post-surgical care of children who have congenital heart disease. Nurses trained in treating children and adolescents with congenital heart disease staff the unit. Child-life specialists help you and your child manage stress and anxiety due to the disease, medical procedures and hospital care.

Innovative research

Physician-scientists and other researchers study genetics and new treatments for congenital heart diseases. Learn more about research in the Cardiovascular Research Center.

Appointments

You may be referred by your primary doctor, or you may make an appointment without a referral.

Nationally recognized expertise

Mayo Clinic is top-ranked in more specialties than any other hospital and has been recognized as an Honor Roll member according to the U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 "Best Hospitals" rankings.

Mayo Clinic campuses are nationally recognized for expertise in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery:

  • Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for heart and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report.
  • Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota, and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2024–2025 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.

Contact

Arizona

  • Mayo Clinic Center for Congenital Heart Disease
  • 13400 E. Shea Blvd.
    Scottsdale, AZ 85259
  • Phone: 480-301-8484

Florida

  • Mayo Clinic Center for Congenital Heart Disease
  • 4500 San Pablo Road
    Jacksonville, FL 32224
  • Phone: 904-953-0859

Minnesota

  • Mayo Clinic Center for Congenital Heart Disease
  • 200 First St. SW
    Rochester, MN 55905
  • Phone: 507-284-3994
March 16, 2024