Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

The UCLA Catheterization Team incorporates Pediatric Cardiologists and Adult Congenital Interventionalists who work together to perform diagnostic and interventional procedures for infants to adult patients with congenital heart disease. While the focus is on interventional procedures, diagnostic procedures are performed to support surgical and transplant programs.  

Beyond standard cases, UCLA Health has an internationally recognized transcatheter valve program that is a dedicated site for transcatheter valve replacements in the pulmonary position in addition to the aortic, tricuspid and mitral valves in congenital patients.  As an accredited Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) Center, UCLA offers a specialized catheterization program tailored to interventional ACHD care. 
UCLA Health has a dedicated program for advanced lymphatic interventions, treating patients with chylothorax, protein-losing enteropathy, and plastic bronchitis. Dr. Glen Van Arsdell also leads an active hybrid program without cardiothoracic surgeons. 
Due to our high interventional volume, favorable results and complexity of cases, our team has been able to innovate new clinical procedures and techniques, making us an attractive site for many FDA mandated, industry sponsored multi-centered trials on new devices for pediatric and adult patients with congenital heart disease.  Thus our Catheterization Team has access to all the “latest and greatest” technologies.  

UCLA continues to be a top choice for clinical trials of congenital devices allowing our team to focus on developing new ways to treat congenital heart disease.  We have one of the largest transcatheter valve sites for congenital heart disease in the world as well as extensive experience with perimembranous VSD closure.  The UCLA Pediatric Interventional Cardiology Team also has active research programs to develop new biodegradable stent technologies for infants.

Our Team publishes extensively on new techniques and devices for pulmonary, tricuspid and aortic valve replacements in patients with congenital heart disease. We also work closely with the interventional cardiologists at CHOC, Dr. Gira Morchi, Dr. Mitch Recto, and Dr. Sanjay Sinha, and many of the doctors in private practice in Los Angeles who also perform procedures at UCLA.