In a medical breakthrough, doctors at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Saudi Arabia has successfully performed the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant on a 16-year-old patient suffering from end-stage heart failure, reported Saudi Press Agency.
The procedure, which took two and a half hours, was performed by a medical team led Dr. Feras Khaliel who is the head of Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery Program at KFSHRC.
To ensure success of the innovative surgical approach which involved performing the transplant without opening the chest of the patient, Dr. Feras Khaliel had brought together a specialised medical team.
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The team meticulously practised the procedure virtually seven times over three days before performing it on the patient, the SPA added further.
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The achievement marks a significant shift in heart transplant surgery, moving away from traditional chest-opening procedures that require long recovery periods, often lasting weeks or months, and limiting the patient’s ability to perform basic daily activities post-op.
Robotic technology allows for minimally invasive surgery, reducing pain, shortening recovery time, and minimising the risk of complications. This significantly improves patients’ quality of life and accelerates their recovery.
According to SPA, KFSHRC CEO Dr. Majid Al Fayyad hailed this achievement as a significant advancement in heart transplant since the historic first heart transplant performed in the 1960s.
He emphasised that “the success of the world’s first robotic heart transplant marks a transformative leap, not only for our institution but also for Saudi Arabia’s journey toward global leadership in specialized medicine, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which places innovation at the core of its efforts to improve quality of life”.