Citizens account for half of all heart surgeries, says top surgeon

The percentage of heart and artery-related diseases has increased dramatically here and necessary steps must be taken to cope with the situation, says Dr Riyaz Al Tarazi, chief of Surgical Unit at the Chest Diseases Hospital.

In an interview with the Gulf News, Dr Tarazi said Kuwaiti citizens account for 50 per cent of all the heart surgeries conducted in the country.

"The main causes of dramatic rise in heart diseases here in Kuwait and some other parts of the world include cigarette smoking and life style while hereditary factors also cannot be ruled out," he added.

"Smoking should be avoided at all costs, exercise should be included in daily routine and to control hereditary factors precautionary measures should be taken," he advised.

He said that open heart surgeries are being successfully conducted at the Chest Diseases Hospital and because of the availability of best expertise in this field, ministry of health has been able to minimise the number of patients sent abroad for the operation to 25 as compared to the previous figure of 350 patients.

"The patients who travel abroad for treatment are emergency cases who can -not be accommodated into the tight schedule of the hospital on an urgent basis, otherwise, we are fully capable of handling the situation," he added.

Dr Tarazi, a Lebanese-American surgeon, said that this hospital conducts a total of 750 open heart surgeries annually and patients include citizens as well as expatriates and priority is always given to the emergency cases.

"The hospital which has conducted more than 4,500 open heart surgeries in the past six years owes its success to the medical expertise and dedication of its staff both citizens and expatriates," he added.

Dr Tarazi said that replacing damaged arteries of the heart by those from the arms has proven to be a great success and have longer life while arteries taken from the legs for this purpose, have comparatively shorter life span, adding that correcting the mitral valve is a better option than replacing it with one made of metal or plastic.

He said that the ministry of health is forced to send children afflicted with heart diseases abroad for treatment due to lack of experienced doctors specialised in paediatric heart surgery.

"Approximately 150 children are sent abroad annually for treatment at a cost of KD30,000 (Dh378,000) per child and it poses a major problem for the ministry but arrangements are being made actively to solve this problem."

"A French cardiologist specialised in paediatric heart operations is set to join this hospital soon to work alongside his Kuwaiti counterpart Dr Faisal Al Saeedi who has recently returned from France after successfully completing his study in this field," explained Dr Tarazi.

He said that these doctors will establish a medical unit specialising in paediatric heart surgeries which will minimise the number of children sent abroad for treatment.

The writer is a journalist based in Kuwait