Nicklaus Children's Heart Institute in Miami says it has scored a statewide first, becoming the only pediatric program in Florida to perform a pulmonary Ozaki procedure. The operation rebuilds a child's pulmonary valve using the patient's own pericardial tissue, a technique surgeons hope will reduce the need for repeat valve replacements as children grow. The milestone, announced on Jan. 5, marks a push by the Heart Institute into more advanced valve-sparing surgeries for young patients.
In a Jan. 5 press release, Nicklaus Children's Hospital said the Heart Institute successfully used the Ozaki technique to reconstruct a pulmonary valve and noted that the center also performs the aortic Ozaki for children. According to the release, Nicklaus serves close to 70 percent of children in the Miami metropolitan area and operates nearly 35 outpatient locations across South Florida. “Offering both the pulmonary and aortic Ozaki procedures represents an important leap forward for pediatric cardiac care in South Florida,” Dr. David Kalfa, chief of cardiovascular surgery and co-director of the Heart Institute, said in the statement.
What the Ozaki Procedure Does
The Ozaki method, developed by Japanese surgeon Shigeo Ozaki, involves fashioning new valve leaflets from the patient's pericardium and sewing them into place. That approach avoids prosthetic hardware and can lessen the need for long-term anticoagulation while preserving the valve annulus in a way that may allow growth, according to Stanford Children's Health. For pediatric surgeons, those features make the technique an attractive alternative in carefully selected cases.
How Rare Is It
Only a handful of pediatric programs in the U.S. have adopted the Ozaki technique, so Nicklaus joins a small national cohort by offering a pulmonary variant of the repair. Becker's Cardiology reported that Nicklaus is one of a limited number of centers performing the approach, which remains less common than standard valve replacement or Ross operations. Long-term outcome data in children are still limited, so surgeons often evaluate the method case by case.
Why It Matters Here
The timing reflects a broader build-up of cardiac expertise at Nicklaus after the system recruited Dr. David Kalfa as chief of cardiovascular surgery and co-director of the Heart Institute last year, bringing experience from Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian, per FIU Medicine. Kalfa's research in valve repair and living-valve transplantation dovetails with the Heart Institute's recent work expanding options for children who otherwise face multiple open-heart surgeries. Hospital leaders say those additions give local families access to advanced valve-sparing care without leaving the region.
Local outlets have picked up the hospital's announcement; West Orlando News republished the release on Feb. 14. Families with questions about candidacy for the Ozaki approach are advised to consult their pediatric cardiology team to learn whether a valve-sparing repair is appropriate.
