HJNO Jul/Aug 2023

42 JUL / AUG 2023 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS CHILDREN’S HEALTH COLUMN CHILDREN’S HEALTH THE Ozaki procedure, developed in Ja- pan by Shigeyuki Ozaki, MD, is the first of its kind for children of the Gulf South, and Children’s Hospital New Orleans is now among a handful of centers in the country offering this novel approach for children with aortic valve disease. On April 7, 2023, the inaugural Ozaki procedure was successfully performed at Children’s Hospital on 8-year-old Skylynn to treat her bicuspid aortic mixed aortic valve disease. Skylynn’s heart journey When Skylynn was around 3 months old, her mom, Cynthia, took her to the pediatrician in Alexandria for a checkup. OZAKI PROCEDURE FOR AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT Offers Groundbreaking Advancements in Pediatric Heart Care for the Gulf South The introduction of the Ozaki procedure has led to significant advancements in pediatric aortic valve replacement surgery, providing an innovative alternative technique that uses tissue from the sac around a patient’s heart to construct a new, custom- made aortic valve. During that appointment, the pediatrician detected a heart murmur and sent her for further testing. At 6 months old, Skylynn had her first cardiology appointment. After an EKG and echocardiogram, it was con- cluded that Skylynn had a serious aortic valve condition. Skylynn has a bicuspid aortic valve, which led to additional heart complica- tions including stenosis, the narrowing of the aortic valve causing blood flow to be reduced or blocked from the heart to the body, and aortic regurgitation, a condition that occurs when the heart’s aortic valve doesn’t close tightly. As a result, some of the blood pumped out of the heart’s left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping cham- ber, leaks backward, limiting blood flow to the rest of the body. Over time, Skylynn developed dilated cardiomyopathy, where the heart’s left ventricle becomes dilated or enlarged. Skylynn’s aortic valve also began to leak, and she was given medicine to slow the progression of that leakage. Her heart valve condition seemed to be stable until she came in for her cardiology follow-up visit in February 2023. During that ap- pointment, it became apparent that Sky- lynn’s body was not growing at the rate of her heart, her aortic valve leakage was get- ting significantly worse, and her left ven- tricle was dilated. It was time to consider heart surgery.