A pioneering achievement has been accomplished at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) in Riyadh where surgical team has managed to make a record medical accomplishment by using the heart of one donor for treating two children through a first-ever “domino” heart transplant in Europe and the Middle East.
This exceptional achievement in the field of surgery aims to solve the shortage problem of organ donations in children by utilizing the full potential of one organ of a donor. In a synchronized surgical process, a 12-year-old boy with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy has been provided with a complete heart transplant after six weeks in the hospital.
While the recipient required a full organ replacement, medical evaluation confirmed that his explanted native heart retained ahealthy, fully viable pulmonary valve and root.
Capitalizing on the tissue’s structural integrity, surgical teams performed a sequential Ross procedure on a second patient, a nine-year-old boy battling severe aortic valve stenosis and regurgitation. Doctors transferred the second child’s own healthy pulmonary valve to replace his diseased aortic valve, then reconstructed the vacated pulmonary position using the healthy valve and root harvested from the 12-year-old’s explanted heart. Consequently, the first child acted simultaneously as an organ recipient and a cardiac tissue donor, enabling one organ donation to successfully treat two young patients.
Medical specialists highlighted that utilizing living donor tissue for pediatric valve reconstruction offers profound long-term developmental advantages. Unlike fixed-size synthetic or biological prostheses, the transplanted living cardiac valve possesses natural growth potential alongside the young recipient, significantly reducing the likelihood of future corrective open-heart surgeries as the child matures.
Dr. Hani Alsergani, Executive Director of the Heart Centre of Excellence at KFSHRC, noted that partial domino heart transplants represent one of the rarest forms of pediatric cardiovascular surgery globally. The successful operation required real-time coordination across neighboring surgical suites, integrating expertise from pediatric cardiac surgeons, transplant specialists, cardiologists, cardiac imaging experts, anesthesiologists, and critical care teams.
The accomplishment underscores Saudi Arabia’s expanding leadership in advanced clinical innovation and specialized organ transplantation. Ranked first in the Middle East and 12th globally among academic medical centers, KFSHRC continues to establish global benchmarks in pediatric healthcare and complex congenital cardiac surgery.
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