Congenital Heart Disease

When someone says “congenital heart disease,” most people think of babies and small children. For decades, babies and children with congenital heart disease have been successfully treated with open-heart surgery. Due to this surgical success, there are more adults living with congenital heart disease in the United States than children. In fact, the current estimate is that there are more than 1.4 million adults in the country living with a congenital heart defect. 

Since 1977, Pediatric Cardiology Associates, now Pediatrix® Cardiology Associates and Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center, part of Pediatrix Medical Group, has been caring for children and adults throughout Tampa Bay and Central Florida with congenital heart disease. With more than 170 years of combined clinical experience, we are one of the most skilled congenital heart programs in the Southeast. 

To help care for the population of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD), we opened a subspecialty clinic dedicated to their care in the 1990s. During the next two decades, our clinic grew and expanded, and in 2019, we established the Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center, the only Adult Congenital Heart Association-accredited program in Central Florida and one of only two in the state.

The Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center’s multidisciplinary team comprises board-certified ACHD cardiologists, congenital heart surgeons, interventional cardiologists, advanced cardiac imaging specialists, advanced heart failure specialists, heart rhythm specialists and advanced practitioners — all experienced in and dedicated to the care of ACHD patients.

Our records at Pediatrix Cardiology Associates and Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center indicate that you or a family member was born with a congenital heart defect, such as tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary stenosis, double outlet right ventricle or other issues with an associated pulmonary valve disorder. Significant recurrent pulmonary valve dysfunction, usually valve leakage, is typical after surgery. Leakage usually worsens during adolescence and early adulthood, indicating a need for valve replacement. 

For years, the only way to replace the pulmonary valve was to repeat open-heart surgery. Upon approval in 2010 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Melody® Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve (TPV) by Medtronic became the first option for non-surgical pulmonary valve replacement. The Melody allowed a small subset of patients to avoid repeat surgery. For most patients, timely replacement of the pulmonary valve (either non-surgically or with surgery) can prevent lifelong complications, such as right ventricular dysfunction, arrhythmias and congestive heart failure.

During the past several years in conjunction with St. Joseph’s Hospital, our practice built an elite team of physicians and staff that specialize in non-surgical pulmonary valve replacement. We collaborate with our patients’ referring physicians to determine if this procedure is right for them. 

As of July 2023, our expert interventional catheterization team has non-surgically placed 244 heart valves, far more than any other program in the state. This means open-heart surgery was avoided in all of these patients, most of whom were able to go home the next day with a new heart valve. This highly specialized team, led by pediatric cardiologist Jeremy Ringewald, M.D., has successfully placed valves in the pulmonary and tricuspid positions. Dr. Ringewald placed the first Melody valve in Tampa Bay in 2011, the first Medtronic Harmony™ TPV in Florida in 2021, and since 2022, more Edwards SAPIEN 3 with Alterra valves than any program in the Southeast. Dr. Ringewald has had such success that he has been asked to teach other physicians how to implant both Harmony and SAPIEN 3 with Alterra valves. 

Dr. Ringewald received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Illinois. He completed his pediatric residency in 1997 at The Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2000, he completed pediatric cardiology fellowship at Northwestern University. The following year, Dr. Ringewald completed an additional fellowship in pediatric interventional cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital. He spent his first three years following training at the Children’s Hospital at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. He performed many Oklahoma state firsts, including the first device closure for atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defect. 

In 2004, Dr. Ringewald moved to the Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as co-director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and contributed to several FDA trials involving the clinical testing of new devices and medications. 

Dr. Ringewald moved to the Tampa Bay area in 2009. His primary clinical interest is pediatric and adult congenital cardiac catheterization.

If you would like to learn more about non-surgical heart valve replacement, we encourage you to contact Pediatrix Cardiology Associates and Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center for an appointment with Dr. Ringewald.

We especially encourage you to make an appointment if you have been diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary stenosis, pulmonary regurgitation, right ventricular enlargement, right ventricular dysfunction or congestive heart failure.

We look forward to serving you and your family on your lifelong heart-health journey.