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King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, performed 40 Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgeries (MIS( by utilizing video-assisted procedures with 100% success during the first half of 2018, Thus avoiding need to do sternotomy and avoiding all the adverse events associated with it.

Dr. Feras Khaliel, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at KFSH&RC- Riyadh, clarified that the age of these patients were ranging between 14 and 68 years, and were diagnosed with heart disease and some with congestive heart failure due to various cardiac problems. The surgery was performed through two incisions of 1cm long, the first incision was utilized for the telescopic camera, and the second for the chest drains and insufflation. The last 4cm incision, is to pass the pericardial patches and heart valves for the needed therapy.

This kind of surgery is designed to repair and replace heart valves that are diseased. It also can be utilized for aortic aneurysms repair, cardiac tumors excisions, maze ablations for atrial arrhythmias, and for atrial septal defects repair.

Dr. Khaliel has confirmed that, this sophisticated technique is not well-spread and according to the latest publications at the ISMICS meeting, less than 5% of Cardiac Surgeons worldwide are sub-specialized and certified to perform such technique. In addition, the fact that KFSH&RC has performed 40 cases within first 6 months, which means, it is equivalent to 8-fold the number that the international centers do as a start-up, annually. This translate into the strong infrastructure and support that cardiac surgery receives from the hospital administration.

The success of cardiac surgery minimal Invasive program has pioneered among the transformation programs that KFSH&RC has launched. Moreover, aiming to minimize patient suffering, and lower the cost by limiting the need for blood transfusions due to blood loss. Furthermore, it prevents wound infections, and it reduces the length of ICU and Hospital stay, which is usually 2-3 days at ICU in the conventional surgery versus 10 hours in MIS, and 1-2 weeks’ hospitalization versus 3-5 days for patients receiving minimal invasive technique. We have noticed a reduction of mechanical ventilation length, from 24 hours down to 4 hours with MIS.

Minimal invasive cardiac surgery leads to faster recovery of patients within 2 weeks, rather than 3 months in their counterpart of conventional surgery.