The Canadian Cardiology Team visits Sudan  

 

Helping children with Heart diseases 

A Team of Doctors and Nurses from Alberta Visit Sudan To perform Life-saving Heart Surgeries  

In 2015,  Dr. Muhieldin, adult and pediatric cardiac surgeon in Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, AB, Canada worked to forge links in training between Canadian and Sudanese entities. These efforts culminated in launching a training collaboration between the Stollery Children’s Hospital and the University of Alberta with training centers in Sudan in pediatric cardiac surgery, pediatric intensive care, pediatric cardiology and neonatology.

The objective of the Sudan Mission was to perform congenital heart surgeries that are not routinely done in Sudan sparing the children and their parents the hardship of travelling abroad and to build the capacity of intensive care services to provide good postoperative care for these cases through training of the Operating Room and Intensive Care staff (nurses, technicians and physicians).

The mission aimed to educate trainees in the early recognition of newborns with congenital heart disease and early referrals to Pediatric Cardiology. Another objective was to develop a collaborative partnerships for Canadian trainers to train medical professionals in Sudan.

Surgical Results

In 2016, the team performed heart surgeries in 16 patients in SHC. 

Several patients were neonates weighing 4-5 kilograms. Complex operations included: two cases of neonatal arterial switch operations, ventricular septal defects closure with Aortic Valve Repair, Glenn anastomosis, partial and complete atrioventricular septal defect repairs. There were two postoperative mortalities, one immediate and one 6 weeks after surgery due to severe infection. In 2017, the team performed heart surgeries on 18 patients. Complex operations included: · Obstructed Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage (TAPVD), single Ventricular, Interrupted Inferior Vena Cava, left sided superior vena cava (SVC) with Azygous continuation (done as emergency for an oxygen saturation of 30%). This patient underwent “total cavopulmonary shunt operation” as described by Kawashima et al.(4). Other cases included four cases of rare atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) with double orifice.

All patients were alive at discharge, with a single death on postoperative day 5 secondary to massive pulmonary embolus.

We consider these surgical results to be a remarkable achievement, given that all patients presented very late with advanced disease and complex anatomy. 

Canadian Sudanese Cardiology Team 

Nadine,Jessica and Hana

and recovered patient post successful surgery.

Dr.Muhieldin M Muhieldin with Dr.Sulafa K. Ali

and recovered patient post successful surgery.

Music 5 days post-surgery

Meet Professor Jeffrey Smallhorn

5 days post-surgery fun ! 

In collaboration with Sadagaat!