Dubai hospital performs rare surgery
Dubai, September 12, 2013
A new surgical treatment, ‘Renal Nerve Ablation,’ still under trial has been performed for the first time in Dubai at the American Hospital Dubai, giving new hope to sufferers of uncontrolled high blood pressure.
A team at the American Hospital Dubai led by Dr Omar Kamel Hallak, Chief Interventional Cardiologist, performed the novel surgical procedure for the first time in Dubai on a 56-year old male resident of the UAE, a US citizen of Jordanian origin, the hospital said in a statement.
High blood pressure – or hypertension - is one of the most common health issues facing the global community and the UAE, with around 30 per cent of the country’s population affected.
High blood pressure (BP) is associated with obesity and can lead to other potentially serious health issues, such as heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. For many with high BP, advances in medication and lifestyle adjustments can help control the blood pressure to maintain a normal healthy life.
For a significant number of others – around 10 per cent of all hypertension suffers – the problem cannot be controlled even through the use of multiple medications. This condition is known as Resistant Hypertension (RHT) and represents a serious health risk.
Until recently, there has been no treatment for RHT other than by using more medications in higher doses, with all the complications and side effects these may create and the adverse impact on the quality of life of the patient, said the statement.
This may be about to change thanks to the new surgical treatment done at American Hospital Dubai.
The ‘Renal Nerve Ablation’ - was first trialled around three years ago and initial studies on a limited number of patients suggest that it is effective and safe, although there is not yet enough evidence to understand fully the long term effectiveness.
This means that the procedure can only be carried out with special arrangements for clinical governance and the consent of the patient.
Patient selection is critical and should be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team to establish that the patient cannot control blood pressure through medication or lifestyle changes.
“The immediate technical success rate of this new procedure is very high,” said Dr Hallak, who performed the first procedure.
"Based on patient studies, we know that it delivers an immediate short term average reduction in blood pressure, and that the blood pressure reduction is maintained at least over a two year period. This procedure appears to be very promising – it is not yet the standard of care but it will have significant applications in the future," he noted..
" The American Hospital Dubai is one of very few select centers in the world capable of performing the procedure, after extensive training and investment in new equipment, and the first procedure at the hospital went very smoothly and produced very good results for the patient," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
