One Donor Heart Helps Save Two Children in Landmark Saudi Procedure

TDT | Manama

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A pioneering medical procedure in Saudi Arabia has enabled two children to benefit from a single donor heart, in what King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH) described as the first paediatric domino heart transplant of its kind in the Middle East and Europe.

The procedure involved a 12-year-old boy with dilated cardiomyopathy and end-stage heart failure, who had spent around six weeks in hospital while waiting for a transplant. He received the donor heart, while doctors found that his own pulmonary valve and root remained healthy enough to be used for another patient.

The second patient, a nine-year-old boy with severe aortic stenosis and regurgitation, underwent a complex Ross procedure. His healthy pulmonary valve was moved to replace his damaged aortic valve, while the pulmonary position was reconstructed using the valve and root taken from the first child's removed heart.

Known as domino heart transplantation, the approach allows viable tissue from one transplant recipient to benefit another patient, extending the medical value of a single donated organ.

Doctors said the transplanted valve is living tissue and can potentially grow with the child, which could reduce the need for repeated valve replacement surgeries.

The operation required the simultaneous coordination of two complex procedures involving specialists in transplantation, paediatric cardiac surgery, cardiology, anaesthesia, critical care and other disciplines.