Cardiologists in the Qassim region (central Saudi Arabia) were able to perform a high-risk open-heart operation for a female patient in which the mitral valve was replaced in a complex procedure that took 6 hours.
The Qassim Health Cluster announced that a specialised medical team at the Prince Sultan Centre for Cardiology received a patient suffering from shortness of breath with minor effort, only to find out after conducting clinical and laboratory tests that her mitral valve had severe stenosis and calcification.
Metal valve
The patient was found to have undergone heart surgery 9 years ago in a Southeast Asian country, in which the same valve was replaced with another from a bovine source, and a decision was immediately made to replace the calcified valve with a metal one. The patient was discharged after 6 days, she is currently undergoing follow-ups in the outpatient department, to return to her normal life.
Heart valves of animal origin are usually implanted for elderly patients (over 65 years old) and females who want to have children in the future, as the valves require taking blood thinners that prevent future pregnancies.-- TradeArabia News Service
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