A Medical Team in King Abdulaziz Medical City in the National Guard Health Affairs- Riyadh succeeded in treating a child suffering from heart deformities which presented in narrow pulmonary arteries and disconnected arteries.
The girl is a year and two months old and was born in the United States of America suffering heart deformities. The medical team in the States tried to repair the right pulmonary artery, resulting in a lack of blood flow and very high pressure in the left pulmonary artery. This led to further complications and forced the child to stay in the intensive care unit for 8 months.
Subsequently, the patient's family consulted a number of medical centers in the USA, but finding no other solutions they decided to return to Saudi Arabia.
A consultant in cardiac surgery and the head of the surgical team Dr. Abdulaziz Al Khaldi said that when the patient came to the Cardiac Center in King Abdulaziz Medical City the doctors began to study her medical condition. After several meetings, the medical team decided that there is hope despite the child’s complex condition.
The surgical team specializes in repairing serious congenital malformations in pulmonary arteries. The team consists of Dr. Abdulaziz Al Khaldi, Dr. Abdulmohsen Al Harbi, a consultant in cardiac anesthesia and Dr. Omar Tamimi, a consultant in pediatric cardiology as well as a peadiatric heart disease specialist and a peadiatric pneumonia specialist.
Dr. Al Khalidi added that after five months of the first surgery, a radiological catheter showed the success of the operation and that the right pulmonary artery had grown enough to allow for a second operation. The second operation was performed last month to connect the right pulmonary artery to the left pulmonary artery and to the heart, restoring the blood circulation back to normal.
Dr. Al Khaldi confirmed that the heart muscle had improved and that the pulmonary artery pressure had returned to normal levels. He also stressed that the patient is now in good health and interacts with her family which indicates a significant improvement to her condition. He concluded by saying: “In the last few years a medical team in King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard - Riyadh was formed to be able to deal with cases such as narrow pulmonary arteries. The team consists of surgeons, anesthesiologists and pediatric cardiologists.” He also remarked that the rate of successful pulmonary artery operations increased in the past two years to more than 41 cases performed in KAMC.