RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center has performed the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The two-and-a-half-hour operation was carried out on a 16-year-old patient suffering from end-stage heart failure.

A medical team led by Dr. Feras Khaliel, head of Cardiac Surgery and director of the Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery Program at KFSHRC, performed the operation after weeks of preparation.

The pioneering achievement, overcoming significant medical challenges associated with such procedures, reinforces Saudi Arabia’s leadership in healthcare, and highlights KFSHRC’s ability to innovate medical practices, SPA said.

The process began with detailed theoretical planning to ensure precision and minimize potential risks.

The team devised a surgical approach to access the heart and perform the transplant without opening the chest of the patient.

To ensure the effectiveness of this approach, the team practiced the procedure virtually seven times over three days before carrying out the operation.

The successful operation has been hailed as a significant development in heart transplant surgery, moving away from traditional chest-opening procedures that require long recovery periods, often lasting months.

Robotic technology allows for minimally invasive surgery, reducing pain, shortening recovery time, and minimizing the risk of complications. This significantly improves patients’ quality of life and accelerates recovery.

KFSHRC CEO Dr. Majid Al-Fayyad said that the successful operation marked another major advance in heart transplant surgery, first performed in the 1960s.

“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,” he said.

“This remarkable achievement would not have been possible without the unwavering support of the Saudi leadership, who have prioritized the development of the healthcare sector, paving the way for a transformative leap in health care services, unlocking new possibilities to elevate the quality of life for patients both locally and globally,” he added.

The breakthrough aligns with KFSHRC’s commitment to medical innovation. As a leading training center in robotic organ transplant surgery, KFSHRC contributes to advancing the global understanding of minimally invasive organ transplants by collaborating with medical institutions worldwide to train their medical teams and achieve better outcomes, further elevating global medical practices.