Baghdad – Health authorities announced in Iraq About the success of the first surgery to implant an artificial heart for a sixty-year-old man from Al-Muthanna Governorate in southern Iraq who suffers from heart failure, with the participation of a German medical team. The operation was conducted at the Nasiriyah Heart Center, and is the first of its kind in the country.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health stated that a specialized German medical team from the University of Hanover participated with Iraqi doctors in performing the operation, which is considered one of the rare and complex operations. The operation – which was conducted on Wednesday, December 20 last year – was completed successfully, noting that the medical team is currently following up the case. the patient.
According to specialists, implantation of a complete artificial heart is one of the most complex therapeutic procedures in the world, and requires the experience and high skills of the medical team and high-level capabilities and equipment.
Process details
The head of the medical team that performed the operation, Dr. Aqeel Al-Khafaji, said that the operation took about five hours, noting that it was the first of its kind in Iraq.
Al-Khafaji told Al Jazeera Net that the Iraqi medical team consisted of several specialties, including the specialties of catheter heart, surgical heart, anesthesia heart, intensive care, kidney, and others, all of which contributed to that success, indicating that the Ministry of Health’s goal is continuity, not experimentation, so these operations will continue to be performed in the future.
The artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart, and it can be used as a temporary means to buy time during heart transplantation, and it can be used as a permanent means to replace the natural heart in cases where heart transplantation is difficult.
Iraqi-German cooperation
For her part, a member of the medical media team in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ruba Falah, confirms that implanting the first artificial heart in Iraq is a qualitative breakthrough in the field of health, especially since it is a unique and unprecedented operation, and falls within the curriculum of the government program in the health field and improving it through The Ministry of Health concludes memorandums of understanding with countries that possess advanced expertise in health to benefit from their expertise.
Falah explained to Al Jazeera Net that the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani to Germany last February, which was followed by a visit by Health Minister Saleh Al-Hasnawi the previous April, resulted in the arrival of the German medical team to the Nasiriyah Heart Center in Dhi Qar Governorate, where they participated with Iraqi doctors. In performing this operation, which is considered complex and rare, she pointed out that it is the beginning of the launch of a major project and a qualitative and historical achievement for Iraq, which will contribute to making the Nasiriyah Heart Center among the global health centers.
pump
Cardiovascular surgery and disease specialist Dr. Wissam Al-Obaidi said that artificial heart implantation is in constant development and can extend the patient’s life to more than 10 years, noting that there are no consistent studies on the possibility of the implanted device continuing with the patient throughout his life, especially since the nature of the device It’s like a pump.
He explained that the pump consists of two tubes and a conversion device that draws blood from the ventricle to push it into the aorta, with a wire coming out of the patient’s body to be connected to an external device for the purposes of charging batteries.
Al-Obaidi indicates – in a statement to Al Jazeera Net – that the price of the device, in addition to performing the operation, may reach about 150 thousand dollars, so its use is rare in many countries.
