Dr. Mustafa Al Refaei, consultant cardiologist, has underscored the need for more post-surgery rehabilitation centers. (SG photo by Joe Avancena) DAMMAM: The Kingdom has poor post-surgery rehabilitation of cardiac patients, which needs to be improved to achieve longer survival rate of several thousand patients who undergo heart surgery every year, according to a leading Saudi consultant cardiologist. “The number of cardiac patients in the Kingdom who underwent surgery is increasing, but their rehabilitation has remained critical because the country has not fully established dedicated rehabilitation centers to monitor their survival,” said Dr. Mustafa Al-Refaei, consultant cardiologist at the Saud Al-Babtain Cardiac Center in Dammam. Al-Refaei was among the keynote speakers at the Sixth International Cardiac Congress held at the Asharqia Chamber recently. “Although rehabilitation of cardiac patients must start even before the surgery, it is the care and rehabilitation of cardiac patients after surgery that needs to be addressed and looked upon by the Kingdom's health sector,” Al-Rafaei told Saudi Gazette. According to Al-Rafaei, all hospitals and clinics must set up their cardiac rehabilitation centers, form teams of cardiologists, employ nurses trained in post cardiac care and rehabilitation, physical therapists, dieticians, and other specialists. However, only very few hospitals have complied with these requirements to be able to run rehabilitation centers of their own, Al-Rafaei said. In the Eastern Province, for example, he said among the few health institutions that provide post surgery rehabilitation are the Saud Al-Babtain Cardiac Center (which performs 80 percent of the surgery in the region), Saudi Aramco Hospital, the Military Hospital in Dhahran, Saad Specialist Hospital, King Fahd Hospital of the University, and Almana General Hospital. Al-Rafaei said many post surgery cardiac patients are not served well because of the shortage of rehabilitation centers and inadequacy of facilities in some of the centers. He said essential factors in the rehabilitation of cardiac patients include the taking up of prescribed medicines, gradual exercise to strengthen the heart, regular visit and consultation with the cardiologists and the specialist doctors who performed the surgery, change in the patient lifestyle (particularly in the intake of food, drinks, and smoking), and patients must record the kind of activities they do, like exercising, to help doctors in the assessment of their condition.
