Principle Investigator: Associate Professor Karen Walker.
Project Institution: Grace Centre For Newborn Intensive Care Westmead Children’s Hospital, Sydney
This study tests the novel ‘first in human’ heart treatment with placental cord blood cells in 12 babies with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), during the first of three surgical operations (at day three of life). The strategy is to stimulate heart muscle growth as early as possible, and strengthen heart function to avoid the high incidence of heart failure and death that occurs before the second operation at three months. Demonstrating the safety of this new therapy will facilitate larger multicentre clinical studies to determine improvements to immediate and long term post-operative recovery, with fewer life-threatening complications.
