Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre is one of the top ten in the MENA region and Europe said a top health official.

His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) inaugurated the 4th International Trauma Conference and highlighted the achievements of the largest trauma centre in the UAE and MENA region.

Al Qutami said that the field of Trauma care is an extremely pivotal and critical field that requires immediate, precise multidisciplinary care and protocols to save lives.

He said the Authority has paid significant emphasis to this field and has invested in continuous medical development of medical professionals, smart technologies, processes and protocol management to ensure the centre provides the highest level of emergency care.

The Trauma centre is a high-volume centre and receives 500-600 cases daily. Many of these are life threatening such as strokes, road accidents, cardiovascular episodes, among others.

Al Qutami said given the global prevalence of traffic-accidents, and non-fatal injuries as a result of these accidents, it is highly important to provide utmost emergency care for such patients and provide them with a path towards rehabilitation to ensure patients retain maximum independence and quality of life possible.

He said the Authority continues to focus on all aspects to develop trauma care.

Rashid Hospital recently introduced the most advanced 3D imaging equipment and navigation system for accurate and precision-based surgeries especially spinal surgeries and neurosurgery.

The three-in-one system known as O-Arm provides real-time imaging of a patient’s anatomy with high-quality images and a large field-of-view in both 2D and 3D.

Dr. Bilal El Yafawi, Consultant Orthotrauma surgeon and head of Orthotrauma department in Rashid Hospital and Chairman of the Conference said, “This is the future. With the introduction of the O-arm, we are able to use this system to do the CT scan in 25 seconds only. The scan is performed in the operation theatre, the O-Arm system provides us with all the images in real time in a 2D or3D format and provides us with 3D navigation. This allows the surgeons to precisely place the screw and fix the spine using real-time imaging. After the procedure, another CT scan is conducted in the OT again. This eliminates the need for re-surgery even in complicated cases. Moreover, the incisions in the spine are much smaller than those needed in conventional surgery, thus recovery time is maximum three days versus a week in conventional surgery.”

El Yafawi said the centre will continue to enhance its services and its adoption of latest technologies such as robotic surgeries, which is expected to begin within the next three months.

He added that specialists have undergone extensive training in robotic surgery.

He said the aim is to provide patients with minimally invasive solutions in surgery, to minimize their hospital stay, minimize their pain and assist with faster recovery.

Al Qutami also toured the exhibition area of the conference that displayed cutting-edge technological advancements in trauma management and care.