Adan Hospital team

KUWAIT: A medical team at Salman Al-Dabbous heart center of Adan Hospital, led by the head of heart surgery center Prof Riyadh Al-Tarrazi and assisted by a team from University of Hanover, succeeded in carrying out a Vascutek Thoraflex frozen elephant trunk surgery, which lasted over 12 hours. This operation is considered the most critical for the heart and the aorta.

The 44-year-old patient suffered from dissection and lacerations in his aorta since 2011, and underwent lifesaving surgery then. But recently, it was noticed that the aorta had expanded and the tearing endangered his life, as the diameter of the aorta reached 9 cm, which required a complex surgical intervention.

Dr Tarrazi said it was decided to carry out the operation to prevent the danger of the aorta bursting at any moment, so the surgery was done using the latest German technology, maybe for the first time in the Middle East. The German team that participated in the operation said the success rate of this operation at University of Hanover is over 90 percent, and complications affect no more than 10 percent of cases. The patient is recovering very well and is undergoing rehabilitation.

By Abdellatif Sharaa