The Institute of Pediatric Cardiology of the Sheba Medical Center is one of the largest in Israel. It includes three Israeli board-certified pediatric cardiologists who are responsible for the various fields of Pediatric Cardiology.

The Institute is divided into three sub-units. The first sub-unit is the Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Sub-Unit in which we perform about 150 cardiac catheterizations every year. These procedures consist of therapeutic procedures in which it is possible to cure some of the congenital heart disease by closing abnormal defects and dilating narrow vessels by balloon catheters and of diagnostic examinations preparatory to cardiac surgery. In some patients we succeed in treating severe and dangerous cardiac arrhythmias in the catheterization laboratory by radio-frequency ablation of the arrhythmogenic focus in the heart and thus curing severely sick patients without surgery.

Cardiac Echocardiography is the second sub-unit where 60 Echo-Doppler examinations are performed each week including Fetal-Cardiac-Echo-Doppler examinations in high-risk pregnant women in order to detect congenital cardiac malformations in uterus and provide the newly born babies with proper medical care at the moment of birth.

The third subunit is the outpatient clinic in which at least 20 patients are seen every day arriving from all over the country.

Part of our time is devoted to teach fellows, residents, and medical students during their pediatric and cardiac internship.

Our patients come from the Sheba Medical Center nursery that has 7,000 births per year and also from the center's three pediatric departments. In addition, we are the referral center to all government hospitals in Israel to which we also provide weekly consultations and all the diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical craniological facilities. We provide our services also to the pediatric hospitals in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. 

About 150 patients are operated on each year for congenital heart diseases.

The Institute of Pediatric Cardiology has grown during the last years, but our needs are still great. We hope to enhance our services with the acquisition of a 3D Echocardiography.  Modern Pediatric Cardiology uses Pediatric 3D Echocardiography as a non-invasive method for diagnosis and management of congenital malformations. This technique minimizes the need for cardiac catheterizations that carries some risk to small babies and children.

Our Echocardiography Section needs to be computerized. All the data will be digitized and stored in an "Echocardiographic Center Machine." This is a computer that facilitates reviewing echocardiograms and thus enables the echo cardiographer to reach in a faster way a more accurate diagnosis. The absence of an Echo Center is a major obstacle to improve and facilitate the good care of our patients.

Institute at a Glance
Number of Patients per Year - 4000 Outpatients
Director - Dr. Julius Hegesh Dr. Julius Hegesh was born in 1947 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He received his M.D. from the Technion Medical School in Haifa. During 1985-86 he was a Fellow in Cardiac Pathology in the Cardiac Registry, the Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. In 1986 he was a Fellow in Doppler Echocardiography at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Section of Pediatric Cardiology in Tucson Arizona, USA. He is board certified in Cardiology since 1986, in Pediatrics (1992) and Pediatric Cardiology  (1994).  He has been the Director of the Institute of Pediatric Cardiology at Sheba since 1992.
Address - The Edmond & Lily Safra Children's Hospital
E-mail - hegesh@sheba.health.gov.il
Tel - 972-3-5303125