Normal Heart Rhythm Restored to 4 Patients after Removal of Artificial Hearts in Dammam

It was totally unexpected for a citizen in his 30th to get his pulses back to normal last week, after an artificial heart had been successfully implanted into him last year at Saud Al-Babtain Cardiac Center (SBCC), which is affiliated to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Dammam. Eight months after the surgery, which was inevitable due to severe weakness in his heart muscle (with function of only 13%), he travelled to the United States accompanying his sister who was studying abroad. During his routine follow-up at the University of Minnesota's Medical Center (UMMC), physicians detected recovery of heart muscle function (with more than 55%), and advised him to undergo a high-risk surgery to remove the artificial heart. Coordinating with his treating physician at SBCC, he decided to go back home to undergo the surgery there.

 

Based on the outcomes of medical tests conducted by the specialized medical team at the SBCC to evaluate the heart muscle and ensure that it is functioning normally (exceeding 55%), the 34-year old patient has undergone an artificial heart removal surgery. Now his heart pulses have become normal (with heart muscle function of more than 65%), his health condition is stable. Then he left the hospital. The surgery is reckoned a unique medical achievement and the fourth of its kind by the SBCC between 2013 and 2016. It is also one of the rare conditions worldwide and the first of its kind in the Middle East.

 

Being one of the leading centers in the field of artificial heart transplantation and including the circulatory support devices in the Middle East, the SBCC is in continuous cooperation with world specialized centers in the field, according to the Eastern Region Health Affairs Directorate.  

 

During the period between 2013 and 2016, the specialized medical team at the SBCC has conducted the first ever six successful heart transplant surgeries. The surgeries had been performed on patients with advanced heart failure, as the blood ejected from the left ventricle was not more than 15%; in an endeavor to save their lives and alleviate their suffering of inability to lead a normal life. In the aftermath of the artificial heart transplantation, the patients were included in a specialized medical care program. The function of their organs is improving and all of them are in good and stable health, leading a normal life. Through follow-up and medical supervision, the heart muscles into the four patients have shown significant improvement and the rate of blood pumping amounted more than 50%. At the end, the artificial hearts have been removed from them.   

    

It is worth mentioning that the artificial heart transplant program have been accredited at the SBCC and included into the surgical therapeutic services provided by the Center for heart failure patients. Consequently, a specialized medical team had been formed to oversee the program, that realized unprecedented medical achievements so far.