A rare surgery was performed for the first time in the Cardiac Surgery Center at King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, where a catheter-based treatment of traumatic injury to the aorta procedure was performed without incisions, using a scalpel, or any further complications. The Saudi medical team, led by Dr. Nora Rashad, was able to perform the procedure successfully to a patient suffering a ruptured aortic aneurysm and bleeding as a result of a car accident.
Dr. Rashad explained that the patient was referred from King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah for diagnosis and tests, where it was clear that he needs immediate medical intervention. She added that the patient was transferred immediately to the operating room, and a catheter-based treatment of traumatic injury to the aorta procedure was performed without incision, this is one of the rare cases performed in advanced cardiac centers, and 3rd and 4th-level hospitals in the Kingdom, because such cases are usually treated surgically, but thanks to Allah then the medical team effort and capabilities made us confident of the success of the surgery without incision.
On the other hand, the Executive Director of the King Abdullah Medical City, Dr. Hassan Bakhamis, clarified that Cardiac Surgery Center at King Abdullah Medical City offers a comprehensive range of clinical services in accordance with international standards through a dedicated team of consultants and surgeons, who are trained in accredited and advanced cardiac centers.
He added that the center is equipped with the latest medical equipments, that currently include 12 beds for Cardiac Intensive Care, which would increase to reach 37 beds at end of this year, in addition to that the catheterization laboratories will increase reaching 4 laboratories and 4 fully equipped operating rooms, in order to enable the centre to perform the most difficult and rarest surgeries in the world including open-heart surgery; that have reached 170 open-heart surgeries since the opening of the center in the Hajj season last year.
Moreover, Dr. Bakhamis said that the services provided by the Cardiac Surgery Center include a diagnostic catheters and interventional therapeutic procedures such as coronary artery surgery, congenital defects corrective surgeries without incision and other surgeries that exceeded 470 diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterizations, in addition to an integrated section to treat all electrical heart diseases like cardiac defibrillator implantation.
The medical team who performed the surgery included Dr. Nora Rashad, Dr. Wael Kashgari, Dr. Ahmed Samman and Mishal Al Ghandour.