Pediatric Cardiology
The pediatric cardiology division at the King Abdulaziz Cardiac Center (KACC) is a unit that provides a tertiary level of care for children with complex congenital and acquired heart diseases from all around Saudi Arabia.
Care for children and/or neonates with heart disease is not the only aim of pediatric cardiology at the KACC. We are also involved in training and research programs on both national and international levels.
Mission of Pediatric Cardiology
Our mission is to provide the National Guard Personnel, and their eligible dependents with the highest quality of medical care backed up by the knowledge of most recent advances in the modalities of cardiovascular care, and most recent updated international guidelines, supported by state-of-the-art technology in medical equipment's, ensuring patient safety, efficiency and proper utilization of available resources.
Values of Pediatric Cardiology
Collaborating to reach goals.
Advancing a family-centered teamwork approach to treatment.
Respecting the diversity and skills of our co-workers.
Educating and innovating in Pediatric Cardiac Care.
Serving our community through outreach and advocacy.
Pediatric Cardiology Capacity
The group has rapidly expanded over the past few years. The clinic visits increased by 100% in 2011 due to new clinics opening after transferring to the new cardiac center expansion. Echocardiography has also increased 30% over the past five years, and cardiac surgery by 30%. The pediatric cardiac program will soon have a significant expansion in beds and facilities to accommodate the ever-increasing demand.
It consists of 35 in-patient beds, including the Paeds Cardiac Step-down (PCSD) unit and the Paediatric Cardiology Ward (PCW), In addition to 25 Pediatric cardiac Intensive Care beds for critical cases and post-operative care.
The division is continually growing, and plans include the creation of an outreach team to improve access to care, the establishment of a heart failure unit to function with the heart transplant program, and the commissioning of a dedicated pediatric cardiac center.
Pediatric Cardiology Scope of Services
Concurrent to the outpatient and inpatient services, pediatric cardiology at the KACC embraces all subspecialties and services such as cardiac imaging, cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology, and surgery that are needed to deal with the delicate and complex diagnostic and therapeutic goals.
Inpatient Clinical Services:
Pediatric Cardiac Step-down (PCSD)
Pediatric Cardiology Ward (Ward-30)
Inpatient Echocardiography and other Non-Invasive Imaging
Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Lab
Outpatient Clinical Services:
Pediatric Cardiology Clinics (Clinic 503)
Business Center Clinics
Anti-coagulation Clinics
Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic
Fetal Cardiology Clinic
Electrophysiology Clinic
Outpatient Echo and other Non-Invasive Imaging
Outpatient ECG, Stress ECG and Holter
Cardiac Catheterization Procedures:
Left and Right Diagnostic Studies
Variety of Percutaneous Catheter Interventions (PCI)
Catheter treatment for adult congenital heart disease
Electrophysiology
Outpatient services:
The outpatient clinic performs more than 12,000 visits annually. It provides general pediatric cardiology consultations in addition to subspecialty clinics, including fetal cardiology, electrophysiology, pulmonary hypertension, interventional catheterization, and heart failure. A unique respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prophylaxis clinic was established on 2012 and has provided excellent results with a significant reduction in the admission due to RSV infection.
Echocardiography:
The dedicated pediatric echocardiography laboratory at KACC performs approximately 11,000 echocardiographic studies yearly. In addition to two-dimensional echocardiography, 3D echocardiographic examinations are routinely conducted utilizing the pediatric trans-thoracic 3D probe and the adult 3D TEE probe if the child's weight is over 20 kilograms.
We are proud to report that 73% of patients undergoing open heart surgeries were sent to the operating room based on echocardiography alone. Echocardiography is helpful before surgery and during, and after heart surgery.
All patients undergoing open heart surgery are screened by intraoperative TEE before and after the intervention. A new micro TEE probe has been utilized for cases as low as 1.8 kg neonate. This approach helped in reducing the rate of postoperative residual lesions as these were immediately detected by the postoperative TEE and fixed before the patient left the operating theatre.
Advanced Cardiac Imaging
Cardiac CT angiography is used frequently at KACC to evaluate children with congenital heart disease and poor echo windows. We perform around 100 CT angiograms annually.
The disadvantage of cardiac CT, however, is the radiation exposure. Due to new developments in the hardware and software, CT angiography at the KACC is per- formed in all pediatric cases using a tiny dose of radiation (less than one mSv).
CT angiography is not limited to studying the heart. Still, it is also used to examine the aortic arch, pulmonary arteries, and veins.
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is also utilized because it offers a non-invasive functional and hemodynamic assessment. It is an essential tool in the decision-making of some conditions, such as trans-catheter pulmonary valve implantation.
Cardiac Catheterization
Due to the improvement in the other diagnostic modalities, the frequency of diagnostic cardiac catheterization is limited to children likely to require intervention during their cardiac catheterization. Several interventional procedures are performed to treat a broad spectrum of CHDs.
These include various types of valvular balloon dilatation, arterial stenting, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) stenting, device closure of PDA, atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, and paravalve leak, as well as trans-catheter pulmonary valve implantation.
Pediatric Electrophysiology
A pediatric electrophysiology service at KACC was recently established and involved a specialized clinic for managing pediatric patients with arrhythmia and syncope. Our electrophysiologist covers the clinic and reviews 10-15 patients weekly.
All the different diagnostic electrophysiological procedures are available, as well as the interventional ones such as ablation for different types of arrhythmias and implantation of intra-cardiac defibrillators.
Pulmonary Hypertension Program
Our unit was one of the earliest in the region to adopt pulmonary hypertension services to provide evaluation and management of children with primary or secondary pulmonary hypertension. This program started recently and involved regular clinics and a protocol for assessing and managing these patients using highly selective medications.
Pediatric Cardiology Clinical Programs
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Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at KACC is one of the best fellowship training programs in the kingdom with our fellows scoring the highest marks in SCFHS exams.
Dr. Riyadh Abu-Sulaiman
Pediatric Cardiology Leadership
Dr. Fahad Alhabshan
Section Head , Consultant , Pediatric Cardiac Imaging
Contact Pediatric Cardiology
Email:
pedcardio@ngha.med.sa
Phone number:
+966-11-801-1111
Ext.:
17728 , 10885