Pediatric cardiologists at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City perform a complex open-heart surgery to treat a 10-month-old boy
Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) successfully treated 10-month-old Mohammed Hazmi’s complex congenital malformation.
Specialised team at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), part of the SEHA network and a leading center for pediatric cardiac surgery in UAE, successfully completed a seven hour-long open-heart surgery in coordination and cooperation of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi.
The Rastelli procedure is a technically challenging open heart surgery performed on cardiopulmonary bypass. The surgeon positions a synthetic patch to close the ventricular septal defect (VSD) in a way that directs blood from the left ventricle to the aorta. In addition, the surgeon also implants a conduit between right ventricle and the pulmonary artery to direct the blood to lungs. The Aristotle scale measures the complexity of the surgery between 1.5 and 15 (1.5 being minor, to 15 being the most complex). Mohammed weighed only five kilograms at the time of the procedure, and his surgery ranked ten on the scale.
A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, cardiologists, anesthetists and intensivist undertake very complex surgeries regularly. Rastelli procedure is performed for certain combinations of congenital heart disease such as Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) with VSD and pulmonary stenosis, Pulmonary Atresia (PA) with VSD, Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) with pulmonary atresia etc, the patient was successfully extubated (taken of ventilator) in the operating room after this complex procedure.
Dr. Zubaida Masoud Alismaili, Acting Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, said: “The Pediatric Cardiac Care team at SKMC is equipped to provide comprehensive medical care to children with congenital heart disease and its related complications by supervising the stability of their conditions before the operation and ensuring intensive care for them after complex cardiac surgeries.” ” Pediatric heart surgery is one of the rare specialties that SKMC performs. We are proud to have such a specialized and experienced medical team perform such intricate heart surgeries.
Our medical team of 12 doctors and nurses, technical and administrative staff, along with our state-of-the-art technology, have been instrumental in making Mohammed’s surgery a success.”
Mohammed is now recovering with excellent hemodynamic results and without the often-associated narrowing of the pulmonary arteries, which are seen with Rastelli patients. He has no obstruction to pulmonary blood flow.
WAM
