HJNO May/Jun 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS  I  MAY / JUN 2025 49 Farshad Anvari, MD The Heart Center Manning Family Children’s aortic coarctation. Now, with the success of its first surgical case, the hospital plans to expand use of VR segmentation for pa- tients with more complex congenital heart defects, as well as in other pediatric spe- cialties. The potential for this technology to revolutionize pediatric surgery is im- mense. n FarshadAnvari,MD, is a board-certified pediatric car- diothoracic surgeon in the Heart Center at Manning Family Children’s and is an assistant professor of clinical surgery at LSU Health New Orleans. Anvari earned a medical degree fromTemple University in Philadelphia and completed surgery residency at George Washington University. He then completed a thoracic surgery residency followed by fellowship training in congenital cardiac surgery at Emory Uni- versity. Anvari began his clinical career in Tampa, Florida, at St.Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and then worked at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh be- fore moving to Orlando, where he served as interim director of the pediatric and adult congenital heart surgery program with AdventHealth for Children, formerly Florida Hospital for Children. Anvari is a member of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, and the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network. Ernesto Mejia, MD, is a pediatric interventional car- diologist in the Heart Center at Manning Family Chil- dren’s. He earned a medical degree from the Amer- ican University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St.Maarten and completed pediatric residency at State University of NewYork in Brooklyn.Mejia com- pleted a fellowship in pediatric cardiology with Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland and then an advanced fellowship in pediatric inter- ventional cardiology with the University of Colorado at Children’s Hospital of Colorado in Aurora. Board certified by theAmerican Board of Pediatrics,Mejia is amember of the Society for CardiovascularAngiog- raphy and Interventions,the Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Society,theAmerican HeartAssociation, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. MANNING FAMILY Children’s has become the first hospital in Louisiana to adopt cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) segmentation technology to enhance pediatric heart surgery, significantly reducing surgical times and improving outcomes. The hospital’s first case using the tech- nology, a groundbreaking procedure on a newborn with complex congenital heart defects, demonstrates the potential of this innovative approach to transform pedi- atric cardiac care. The advanced VR plat- form, Elucis, is the only FDA-approved segmentation software that allows medical teams to create interactive 3D models of a patient’s heart, enabling surgeons to better plan and execute complex procedures. By providing a fully immersive, 360-de- gree view of anatomical structures, the technology allows for more precise preop- erative planning, reducing potential sur- prises in the operating room and decreas- ing surgery times. Traditionally, providers have relied on 2D imaging, which limits the ability to ful- ly assess the complexity of a heart defect. With Elucis, the care team can step inside a patient’s heart, examine it from every an- gle, and develop a surgical plan with un- precedented accuracy. In the hospital’s first case using Elucis, a newborn was diagnosed with coarctation of the aorta, or narrowing of the aorta, and a ventricular septal defect (VSD), requir- ing immediate surgery. The VR model of the heart revealed that his VSD was larger than initially expected, allowing pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Farshad Anvari, MD, to refine his surgical approach before entering the operating room. Without this advanced planning, the unexpected size of the patient’s VSD could have extended the procedure time by at least two hours. Reducing surgical time is especially critical for newborns, as it min- imizes physiological stress and promotes faster recovery. By leveraging this inno- vative technology, the surgical team was able to shorten the baby’s procedure and accelerate recovery, allowing the patient to go home just one week after surgery — far earlier compared to similar cases without VR technology. Manning Family Children’s introduced Elucis in November 2024 and is now in- tegrating the technology into its Heart Center program. Each year in the U.S., ap- proximately 16,800 babies are born with ventricular septal defects and 2,200 with “By providing a fully immersive, 360-degree view of anatomical structures, the technology allows for more precise preoperative planning, reducing potential surprises in the operating room and decreasing surgery times.”