More than a 100 open heart surgeries have been performed at Zulekha Hospital by the cardiac team including consultant cardiac surgeons Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Helmy and Dr. Yasser Menaissy. The individuals undergoing CABG procedures ranged between the age groups of 24 and 73 for CABG. These procedures have had excellent results exceeding the international standards for success rates of 99 percent.
The cardiac team at Zulekha Hospital has been able to achieve this feat with the comprehensive cooperation of the team that ensures the patients receive the best medical and emotional care from the moment they step into Zulekha Hospital and are monitored and guided by their doctors post surgeries. Compassionate nurses and doctors together with highly experienced and skilled surgeons, anesthetists and intensivists ensure this inclusive success. Any open heart surgery is a team work, with about 15 personnel working together in harmony to achieve the best outcome for the patient. These include preoperative doctors and nurses who prepare the patients and investigations before the surgery, as well as the postoperative intensive care doctors and nurses who must be all very professional in management of the patient.
Among the patients seen by Dr. Helmy, nearly 50 percent were between the age of 35 and 50. Dr. Helmy remarks, "The lower age group among patients is a worldwide phenomenon due to stress and the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus and Hyperlipidemia and the unhealthy lifestyles."
Dr. Menaissy specializes in adult and pediatric cardiac surgeries. His youngest patient was five, weighing 14 kilograms who had a congenital heart defect and another open heart surgery was performed recently by him for a 32 year old which is very uncommon at this age.
The different types of complex cardiac surgeries included a heart failure with triple valve replacement and Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures, and combined CABG procedures with excision of a cardiac tumor. The surgeons also performed high risk emergency procedures as cardiac surgeries for acute complicated aortic dissection. Dr. Menaissy says, "For Pediatric patients, most simple lesions and all complex lesions need an open heart surgery, while in adults, surgery is essential when all transcatheter procedures are either not recommended or are unsuccessful. Minimally invasive surgery in selected cases of adults mostly, done through a small incision between the ribs, avoiding the full midline sternotomy incision is very convenient for cardiac patients, with more cosmetic incision and faster recovery."