The Heart Diseases and Surgery Center in Madinah has successfully operated on a 16-month-old patient suffering from a rare congenital heart disease. According to global records, the operation is the second success of its kind with a similar surgery conducted for the first time abroad in 2009. Hatem Saman, spokesman for the Health Department in Madinah Province, said the child was admitted to the center after arriving from Yanbu Province, complaining of frequent bouts of pneumonia. Initial tests showed that he was suffering from a rare heart defect, "atrophy of the spleen syndrome," since birth as well as the "interruption of the inferior vena cava, atrophy of the pulmonary artery in the presence of a large hole between the atria and ventricles." A surgical team at the center decided to conduct an open-heart surgery known as "Kawashima Procedure," to direct half the body's venous blood flow into the lungs and improve oxygen levels in the blood. The medical team is looking forward to publishing the results of its achievement in renowned scientific journals for the benefit of those interested pediatric cardiology.
