Maryam Alomair

Consultant, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

Maryam Alomair is a consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh and heads its minimally invasive programme for congenital heart defects in children, launched in mid-2023. Instead of dividing the breastbone as in conventional open-heart surgery, the team reaches the heart through a small incision between the ribs, which reduces post-operative pain and shortens recovery. The hospital reports 54 paediatric congenital procedures performed this way, with the average length of stay for eligible children falling from nine days to five, a cut of 44 per cent, and describes the centre as the only one in the region carrying out minimally invasive repairs of left-sided congenital defects. Among the cases Alomair has described is a three-month-old infant weighing four kilograms. She has said that operating on children through small incisions demands exceptional precision because of the size of paediatric anatomy and the sensitivity of intervening on the heart so early in life, and that it depends on close coordination between the cardiac surgery, anaesthesia and intensive care teams.