“Thanks to Allah, a rare surgery of liver transplant has been conducted at King Fahad Specialist Hospital (KFSH) in Dammam for a 56-year old patient, who had been suffering from an unknown chronic hepatic failure and sickle cell anemia,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH). It added: “The patient was admitted to the hospital on Shawwal 28th, 1437 (corresponding to August 2nd, 2016). Two days later, the patient has been prepared, and a Saudi surgical team has conducted a 5-hour surgery to him”.
According to reports published in the peer-reviewed medical journals, this patient is reckoned the oldest one with sickle cell anemia to undergo liver transplant surgery, and such surgeries are very risky; due to complications including arteries and veins thrombosis in the transplanted liver, the matter which leads to high death rate. Therefore, most of liver transplant centers are hesitant to perform such surgeries.
The surgical team highlighted that the health status of the patient is stable, may Allah be praised. Meanwhile, the MOH stated that this transplantation is reckoned a good example that the service of the KFSH's Organ Transplant Center is extended to most of the Kingdom regions, in addition to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The Ministry pointed out that more than 117 liver transplant surgeries have been performed for the last six years. Within the same vein, the medical team thanked Allah, the Almighty, meanwhile lauding the unlimited support shown by the minister of health and his deputies, and the efforts exerted by the surgical team, liver disease physicians and anesthesiologists at the hospital.