MOH News

KFMC Performs a First-of-its-kind Cardiac Bisorbable Stent Transplantation Surgery
04 June 2012
   A medical crew, at Prince Salman Heart Center, Affiliated to King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), was able to perform a first-of-its-kind bisorbable stent transplantation surgery inside the coronary artery of a Saudi patient at his fifties suffering from clogged coronary artery.
 
Dr. Mustafa Yousef, the Director of Prince Salman Heart Center, and head of the medical crew, stated, “KFMC, represented by the Center, depended on the technology of bisorbable stent which secretes the drug by fixing it inside the coronary artery. Subsequently, it can maintain the drug secretion gradually over several months. Thus, the drug could be secreted inside the coronary artery, preventing or reducing clogging the coronary artery, as it helps widen the artery by up to100%.”
 
As for the difference between the metal stent and the newly introduced drug-encapsulated stent, Dr. Mustafa Yousef pointed out that there is a big similarity between the placing of the metal stent and the bibsorbable stent in the patient's coronary artery, except that the latter helps melt the encapsulated substance inside the body in two year's time into gas and water without any harm. He also pointed out that it makes the coronary artery devoid of any strange bodies, which helps the coronary artery stretch to facilitate the flow of the blood, compared with the permanent metal stent that remains in the coronary artery, hindering its movement.
 
“The bisorbable stent technology has many advantages over traditional metal stents,” Dr. Yousef added. “It is, therefore, reckoned one of the substantial medical and technological developments. It would be particularly useful for the younger patients, as it offers an opportunity of further treatment opportunities in the future. This is a significant merit unavailable with metal stents.” He pointed out, however, that this technology will be applied at a very limited scale nowadays, until it's further developed to cover wider segments of patients.
 
He went on to say, “The world witnesses over two million metal stent surgeries, in addition to much more cardiac catheterization surgeries on coronary arteries. Consequently, we are keen to harness all the technological potentials to the treatment of patients. In this context, the drug-encapsulated stent seems so promising.”
 
Concluding his statement, Dr. Mustafa Yousef made clear that the drug-encapsulated bisorbable stent technology has been used in few specialized centers around the world, and has proved a great success. This opens the way to make good use of such experiences in the provision of better surgical services for the patients in need of arterial catheterization surgeries.
 
 



Last Update : 06 June 2012 08:56 AM
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