The Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, is in stable condition after a 10-hour open-heart surgery on Saturday at the Stanford University Medical Centre in Palo Alto, California.

The sultan’s private aide, Kelvin Ong, said in statement here today that Sultan Sharafuddin, 63, was now recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of the medical centre after undergoing repair of a leaking valve for “mitral regurgitation”.

Sharafuddin Idris Shah – Malaysian Sultan & Heart Valve Patient

He said mitral valve regurgitation (leaking heart valve) surgery was recommended when a person’s ejection fraction — a measurement of the heart’s efficiency — dropped below 60 per cent and/or the left ventricle was larger than 40mm at rest. The ejection fraction could be used to estimate the function of the left ventricle, which pumps blood to the rest of the body, he said.

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