Sharjah: A doctor who performed three complex heart surgeries live and webcast the operations around the world from Sharjah praised the procedure as a “major breakthrough for the Middle East region”.
Stents are placed permanently by surgeons at weak points in plaque-hardened arteries and blood vessels to force open the narrowed areas to allow blood to flow freely once again.
Al Qasimi Hospital broadcast three interactive live cases on December 14-15 to train and educate new physicians from around the world.
The complex surgeries were webcast live via webcast to the sixth edition of the Gulf cardiology conference in Dubai.
Around 2,000 surgeons from around the world viewed the surgeries while surgeons in Dubai viewed the procedures and provided their comments on each step.
Dr Arif Al Nooryani, executive director and consultant cardiologist at the hospital, listened to feedback from doctors during the surgery over a speaker in the cardiac catheterisation lab’s operation room.
Al Nooryani told Gulf News that the three interventions “have been a great success”.
“We need to follow up with the patients to make sure that everything is still OK,” he said.
The latest technology and devices in the heart surgery and cardiac catheterisation involved three patients with Emirati, Sudanese and Asian backgrounds and their ages ranged between 40-60.
New technology allows surgeons to better position stents within the heart, he said.
“These three interventions are a breakthrough for the region; we have taken the opportunity to show the conference that we [in the Middle East] are not inferior to others. We have showed that in the Arab world there are doctors performing the same operations as in Europe and North America and maybe even doing them better. This has put Sharjah, the UAE and the whole Middle East in an exclusive club.”
Dr Al Nooryani said the technology delivers high-resolution video and real-time two-way experiences through global network and it facilitates surgical education through live interactive surgery video broadcasting and to learn and communicate in real-time directly with the surgeon and those in the operating room.
“The aim of the surgery is to allow us to provide invaluable training to new physicians and other health-care professionals from around the globe,” Dr Al Nooryani said. “We are very pleased to have this technology available at Al Qasimi Hospital to aid us in training and to take part in global conferences.”
The doctor said very few cardiologists worldwide favour stenting for this kind of problem.
“Medicine is constantly evolving. We have new equipment, new materials, new procedures that we, as cardiologists, need to learn. Through this live transmission, I was given the opportunity to teach these cardiologists how to do this by showing them that it can easily be done and giving them encouragement,” said Dr Al Nooryani.
