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UAE Doctors Score A First with TIPS Procedure

ABU DHABI - A procedure, which lowers the risk of complications for patients awaiting liver transplant, has been successfully performed, for the first time in the UAE, on a five-and-a-half-year-old girl.

Dr Jamal Alkoteesh, Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi, led the team of doctors who carried out the TIPS (Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt) procedure, a Press release from SKMC said on Tuesday. Dr Alkoteesh stated that the two-hour-long procedure was done successfully with no complications through a less than 5mm cut at the base of the neck. The patient was discharged from the hospital 48 hours later and she is in good health now. TIPS is an advanced interventional procedure which allows blood flow through the liver to normalise by relieving pressure in major veins. Hence immediate risk of a major life-threatening gastrointestinal bleed is significantly relieved.

The child, referred to SKMC from Dubai, was suffering from gastric varices bleeding due to portal hypertension as a result of liver cirrhosis. The child’s gastric bleeding was controlled by Dr Souheil Shabib, Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterologist/Transplant Hepatologist, after three hours of sclerosing and banding of the bleeding sites. The risk of a second massive life-threatening bleed was very high and TIPS was the best option to avoid it, the release said.


 anwar@khaleejtimes.com