Drs. Tom Jones and Gordon Cohen: Joining Forces
Cardiac surgeon Dr. Gordon Cohen and interventional cardiologist Dr. Tom Jones work together to optimize the best techniques from their disciplines to better treat complex heart conditions.
Seattle Children’s interventional cardiologist Dr. Tom Jones and cardiac surgeon Dr. Gordon Cohen are developing “hybrid” procedures that leverage the best of interventional and traditional surgical techniques to treat some of the most complex heart problems with less risk, while improving outcomes.
“The term 'hybrid' refers to any procedure that combines surgical therapy with interventional cardiology,” explains Cohen. “To date, we’ve done about a half dozen different types of hybrid procedures where my surgical team provides open-chest access so that Dr. Jones can perform a catheter-based procedure.”
In some cases, the combined intervention accomplishes the same therapeutic outcome as open-heart surgery without the added risk of putting a child on a heart-lung machine, lowering the child’s body temperature and stopping the heart.
“Hybrid procedures enable us to perform treatments that neither one of us would be capable of on our own,” says Cohen. Dedicated collaborators, Jones and Cohen are known to “scratch out a plan in the dirt” to develop the best approach for each child.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a condition affecting newborns in which the left side of the heart is not developed — is the most challenging congenital defect treated at Seattle Children’s. If left untreated, the condition is fatal within days.
The standard of care for hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a three-stage open-heart surgery. The first stage is called the Norwood procedure. By replacing the surgical Norwood procedure with a hybrid approach, Jones and Cohen report that survival rates for the most fragile newborns are similar to the Heart Center’s excellent Norwood outcomes for healthier newborns.
Jones is now working to improve this hybrid approach. Soon, he will be able to regulate blood flow to the lungs by placing small devices inside the pulmonary arteries. This new technique eliminates the need to open a child’s chest while accomplishing the same goal as the current open-chest method.