King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH) has successfully treated two children using a single donor heart in a paediatric domino heart transplant, described by the hospital as the first procedure of its kind in the Middle East and Europe.

The procedure involved a 12-year-old boy with dilated cardiomyopathy and end-stage heart failure, who received the donor heart after spending around six weeks in hospital awaiting transplantation. His own pulmonary valve and root remained healthy and were preserved for use in another child.

The second patient, a nine-year-old boy with severe aortic stenosis and regurgitation, underwent a complex Ross procedure. His healthy pulmonary valve was moved to the aortic position, while the pulmonary position was reconstructed using the valve and root from the first child’s explanted heart.

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This approach enabled a single donated heart to benefit two paediatric patients. Because the transplanted valve consists of living tissue, it can potentially grow with the child and may reduce the need for future valve replacement procedures.

The achievement required close coordination among specialists in transplantation, paediatric and congenital cardiac surgery, cardiology, anaesthesia, critical care and cardiac imaging, alongside nursing, perfusion and transplant teams.

Dr Hani Alsergani, Executive Director of the Heart Centre of Excellence at KFSH, said: “This is one of the rarest forms of partial heart transplantation in children and places KFSH among a select group of centres worldwide capable of performing it, building on the hospital’s expertise in heart transplantation and complex congenital cardiac surgery.”

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