A Dh7 million "hybrid" operating theatre will allow doctors at a Dubai hospital to treat a host of conditions quickly under one roof and free up bed spaces for new patients.
The theatre at Rashid Hospital combines a surgical room with an angiography suite and large 3D imaging equipment, such as a CT scanner, enabling a team of doctors, including neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons and gastroenterologists, to offer a rapid response to patients' treatment needs.
For some patients, surgery waiting time could be reduced by up to five days.
Dr Ayman Al Sibaie, a consultant intervention radiologist at the hospital, said: "Before, the patient would come here [to the original operating theatre] for angiography.
"Afterwards he would go back to his ward where he would be booked into theatre after four or five days. So he spends days in the hospital just waiting for his appointment."
Angiography involves injecting fluids into the bloodstream that make blood vessels visible on X-rays. The process is used to closely examine the arteries.
With everything housed together, quicker surgeries are finally possible, said Rasik Ahmad, a senior radiographer and one of the five-member team operating the hybrid theatre.
"Everything is now at our fingertips. Before we had to keep running around for everything, in and out, in and out. Now everything is under one roof so it is a big advance."
Long waiting times are not only a financial burden on the hospital and the patient, said Dr Al Sibaie, but also take up needed bed space.
"Every bed occupied in the hospital means you are preventing another patient from using it," he said.
On occasions when the hospital's wards are full, a percentage of the patients taking up beds are awaiting their next surgical procedure, he added.
"If we can release them faster, we can treat more patients."
There are many benefits to having the CT scanner in the theatre, said Mr Ahmad.
"With the old machine, after our procedures we needed to transfer the patient to the CT-scan department. With this one, we do the procedure, we do the CT scan, we do everything on the spot."
As well as being time-efficient, the new equipment allows doctors to provide an alternative to traditional surgeries, thus reducing a patient's recovery time and risk of illness.
"We can [provide] more advanced procedures with much higher quality. This will lead to a very precise procedure and a better outcome for the patient," said Dr Al Sibaie, who has seen more than 100 patients come through the theatre since it opened last month.
There are between 1,200 and 1,400 coronary angioplasty procedures carried out at Rashid Hospital annually. The surgery to open blocked arteries is less invasive than open-heart surgery, of which there are 400 performed by the Dubai Health Authority each year at Dubai Hospital.
New procedures at Rashid Hospital will include implanting heart valves through catheters, said Dr Fahad Omar Baslaib, a consultant and head of the cardiology unit.
Conditions such as aortic valve stenosis, which occurs when the aortic valve through which blood from the heart is pumped to the rest of the body does not open properly, could previously only be corrected by open-heart surgery.
"With this technology we can replace the valve through an angiography catheter. You go through the artery in the top of the leg [the femoral artery] creating an opening of about one centimetre, and you replace the [defective valve] with a new valve," said Dr Baslaib.
The non-invasive surgery has benefited 69-year-old Abdul Al Fahim, who was operated on several days ago.
One of four patients who have had the procedure at the hospital since the theatre opened, Mr Al Fahim was mobile 24 hours later, something that would not have been possible had he undergone open-heart surgery.
"Definitely, he would not be able to walk after the surgery," said Raymond Alberto, a cardiac cath lab nurse, who added the patient was showing no signs of complications.
Aside from the advances in heart surgery, the new hybrid theatre will be used to treat all manner of illnesses. "We treat the whole body, from head to toe," said Dr Al Sibaie.
zalhassani@thenational.ae
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In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Dos
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- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
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- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
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Slow loris biog
From: Lonely Loris is a Sunda slow loris, one of nine species of the animal native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore
Status: Critically endangered, and listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list due to growing demand in the global exotic pet trade. It is one of the most popular primate species found at Indonesian pet markets
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
