News
Saudi Hospital Performs First Fully Robotic Liver Transplant
The groundbreaking surgery paves the way for future medical innovation.
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center’s (KFSH&RC) Organ Transplant Center of Excellence (OTCoE) in Riyadh, KSA, has successfully completed a groundbreaking surgery — a liver transplant performed entirely by robots.
The donor recipient, a 66-year-old Saudi male battling non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, was treated on September 6th. The man is the first in a long line of future patients who will benefit from fully robotic transplants at the Saudi facility.
While other surgical establishments have experimented with minimally invasive liver transplants using hybrid robotic techniques, KFSH&RC is the only one to successfully perform a fully robotic liver transplant. The high-tech machinery enables surgeons to make smaller incisions, allowing for faster recoveries and radically reduced rates of post-op complications and infections.
Dr. Dieter Broering, Executive Director of the Organ Transplant Center of Excellence at KFSH&RC, noted: “With this remarkable feat, we at KFSH&RC reaffirm our commitment to pushing the boundaries of medical innovation and enhancing the quality of healthcare services offered to patients worldwide. The successful implementation of fully robotic liver transplants marks a pivotal moment in the history of organ transplantation and firmly positions KFSH&RC as a world-leading center in this field”.
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The KFSH&RC Robotic Surgery Program and its Da Vinci Xi robots now operate across several surgical departments:
- Gynecology, including operating on uterine cancers, benign hysterectomies, and myomectomies.
- Urology, for the treatment of kidney, ureter, bladder, and prostate tumors.
- Neurology, where electrodes are implanted into the brains of patients suffering refractory epilepsy and hemispherectomies.
KFSH&RC is now recognized as a leading Training Center for robotic transplants, opening the doors to collaborations with other medical institutions and driving global progress in minimally invasive surgeries.
News
Saudi Digital Payments Reach 80% As Cash Use Shrinks
Visa data shows cards and mobile wallets dominate spending, with smartphones now driving a growing share of daily transactions.
Digital payments now account for 80% of all transactions in Saudi Arabia, according to Visa’s latest Where Cash Hides report, another marker of how quickly the Kingdom is moving away from cash.
The share is up four percentage points from a year ago. Around 67% of consumers are now largely non-cash users, paying mainly with cards or mobile wallets. Smartphones are taking a bigger role, with mobile payments making up 16% of transactions.
Cash is retreating in routine spending. Eating out dropped 9%. Bill payments fell 8%, as shoppers opt for faster checkouts and app-based payments.
“The data shows a steady move toward digital payments in Saudi Arabia. Such progress is possible only because banks, fintechs, merchants, and technology partners are moving together in the same direction, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” said Ali Bailoun, Visa’s Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman.
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Despite the recent findings, it’s important to note that cash hasn’t yet disappeared. It still shows up for tips (39%), peer-to-peer transfers (28%) and rent (14%).
Visa points to security features such as tokenization, along with rewards and cashback, as factors nudging more spending onto cards and phones — a shift that tracks with Saudi Arabia’s wider Vision 2030 push to digitize commerce.
Saudi Digital Payments Reach 80% As Cash Use Shrinks
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