(MENAFN - Arab News) A two-year-old boy has successfully undergone open-heart surgery at a Madinah hospital, the Ministry of Health announced here yesterday.
Abdul Hamid Al-Najjar, consultant pediatric cardiologist and assistant director general for technical affairs at the Madinah Cardiac Center, said that the surgical team has performed operations on several children with chronic heart problems.
Al-Najjar explained that the two-year old child weighed only nine kilograms and was suffering from retarded growth, a chest infection and a problem with narrowed ventricles in the right pulmonary artery.
The surgeon said other children, aged six and 10, also successfully underwent open-heart surgery for similar problems and were discharged after five and four days respectively.
Since its inception, the center has treated 18,278 cardiac patients and 3,450 out patients.
The hospital has performed a total of 5,171 cardiac catheterizations and 218 open-heart surgeries. During the last Haj season, around 368 pilgrims made use of the facilities and services of the center.
In a separate statement, director-general of the center, Dr. Osama bin Ahmed Amoudi, an eminent cardiologist, pointed out that 65.3 percent of their patients were male and 34.7 percent female.
There were 100 children hospitalized at the center, making up 3.1 percent of the total number of patients. Thirty-eight children have undergone successful cardiac catheterization operations, and others were advised to adhere to a proper treatment program.
To date, about 58 million medicines were dispensed by the center's pharmacy, which is connected to all its divisions through a unified electronic system and is equipped with a pneumatic system.
The center has over 445 advanced, high-tech medical devices. Three rooms have been set aside for open-heart patients. They are equipped with a high-quality digital system to record surgeries; and state-of-the-art sterilization devices, artificial lung devices and surgical instruments.
Operating theaters are connected to an e-archive system, to enable surgeons to review radiological images while performing surgeries. It is supported by two cardiac catheterization laboratories. A third laboratory will be established soon.
The center has five recovery beds equipped with high-tech patient monitoring devices, thought to be the first of its kind in the world. They enable cardiologists to diagnose heart diseases accurately.
The center has a device to examine the heart in three minutes. It also has electrocardiograms, important for monitoring the heartbeat. The ICU includes 43 separate beds with advanced medical devices.
Amoudi praised the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for providing quality services throughout the country.
