RIYADH, Jan 17 – King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) has become the regional leader in lung transplants with the use of innovative new techniques, local media reported.
Qasim bin Othman Al-Qasabi, executive supervisor of the KFSHRC, said the hospital’s use of the new technique is part of its strategic plan to remain the region’s leader in this type of surgery.
Surgeons performed 17 lung transplants in 2013, with a success rate comparable to well known international hospitals, including 15 two-lung, and two one-lung operations, he said.
He said this was an increase of 20 percent from 2012, when doctors completed 14 operations.
He said the hospital’s surgeons also perform heart, liver, kidney, stem cell and bone transplants.
Walid Saleh, a thoracic surgery consultant and surgical director of the lung transplant program at the KFSHRC, said the technique has recently allowed doctors to replace both lungs of a 17-year-old Saudi teenager.
He said the girl had cysts in her lungs that prevented her from breathing normally and resulted in her using an oxygen tank. This affected her growth and saw her confined to a wheelchair.
He said the girl was able to breathe normally, without any aids, two days after the procedure. The doctors moved her out of intensive care after several days. She would leave the hospital soon, he said. — ARAB NEWS
