According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), from the beginning of 2016 until the end of 2018, specialized cardiac centers have increased cardiac catheterization services by 69% in most of the Kingdom's regions and provinces, bringing the total number of catheterization procedures to 98,601 (for adults and children), and heart surgeries to 7,453 (for adults and children), at 22 centers.
The cardiac center services include cardiac catheterization procedures (for adults and children), heart surgeries (for adults and children), electrophysiology studies (for adults), transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), catheterization for congenital defects (for adults and children), transcatheter mitral valve repair, complex open-heart surgeries, and left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, MOH adds. MOH is planning to establish heart transplant centers.
It is noteworthy that, during the same period, the catheterization procedures (for adults) have increased by 90% and open-heart surgeries by 40%, indicating that MOH has become closer to patients, the matter which helps to make diagnosis and treatment fast and accurate and alleviating the burden of traveling and long appointment intervals for patients. MOH continues its efforts to facilitate citizens' access to the service through expanding catheterization procedures and providing them with facility-based health services, which contributed to reducing the time waiting for acceptance to send the patient to big cities.