Profile: Mr Yow Kuan Heng: Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon, Vascular Lead, Sri Kota Specialist Medical Centre, Klang, Malaysia…
Dr (Mr) Yow practises full time at Sri Kota Specialist Medical Centre, Klang. Sri Kota is the most established private hospital in Klang with a cutting-edge Hybrid Vascular Operating Theatre (OT). Dr (Mr) Yow also runs clinics and Day Case Surgery at private centres around Greater Kuala Lumpur & Klang Valley.
Mr Yow is a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon. A Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon is a surgeon who treats all conditions of the arteries and veins outside the heart, using open surgery and keyhole methods such as angioplasty and stents.
Having spent 22 years training and practising in the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe, Dr Yow returned to Malaysia under the Talentcorp programme to be with his family.
After being awarded the prestigious ASEAN scholarship in Singapore, he attended Law School at the National University of Singapore for 2 years. Surgery being his first & foremost passion, he then took up an offer of Medical School at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where he obtained a 2:1 Honours degree with 4 medals including the JJ Fitzsimmons Medal in Surgery.
Mr Yow then went on to train in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery in the UK and has attended 2 coveted endovascular fellowships in Europe : The Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland (VSSGBI) Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) Fellowship in Dublin, Ireland and the Advanced Endovascular Fellowship in Munster, Germany. Here, he acquired skills in planning and treating aortic aneurysm and lower limb arterial disease using the most minimally invasive advanced technology.
He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS: General & Vascular Surgery) in 2015 and has been on the UK General Medical Council Specialist Register for Vascular Surgery since 2017. He was an independent Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon in the UK National Health Service (NHS) for 8 years before taking up post as Resident Consultant Vascular Surgeon at Pantai Hospital Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur in 2023.
In 2024, Mr Yow was then offered the exciting opportunity to set up the Major Vascular Surgery service at Sri Kota Specialist Medical Centre(SKSMC) in Klang. Sri Kota is the most established tertiary private hospital in the major port city of Klang, Malaysia. SKSMC continues to expand, renew and innovate, with 4 new floors of Medical, Surgical and Maternity wards and clinics. It has recently opened its state-of-the-art Hybrid Vascular Operating Theatre (Hybrid OT), the first in Klang and the only one of 3 major private hospitals in the Klang Valley and greater Kuala Lumpur to have one. Hybrid OTs enable both open Vascular surgery and angioplasty/stenting to take place in the same sterile operating environment. It has cutting-edge imaging facilities to ensure maximum accuracy of treatment and reduced radiation for patients.
As the new SKSMC Vascular Lead, Mr Yow with his UK National Health Service(NHS) management experience, set up the Major Vascular Surgery service in less than 6 months – training staff, procuring equipment, setting up treatment pathways and protocols to ensure the highest international standard of Vascular care for all patients. The SKSMC Major Vascular Service is the only major Vascular Surgery service in the greater Klang area. It now offers treatment of all major and minor Vascular conditions, serving a population of 1.3 million for Klang, Petaling Jaya, Subang, Shah Alam, Banting, Kuala Selangor, Seremban, coastal areas and beyond.
Mr Yow regularly gets referrals from other parts of Malaysia such as Johor, Penang, Melaka and Seremban as well as Indonesia. He has also been asked for second opinions from other Vascular Surgeons and is an expert witness in Vascular Surgery for several major law firms in Malaysia.
Mr Yow performs all major Vascular operations and as a UK consultant, he had excellent externally-audited outcomes. All UK Vascular Consultants are required to submit their patient outcome data to the UK National Vascular Registry(NVR) based at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London.
Mr Yow’s UK NVR data while he was a UK NHS Consultant showed that he had one of the lowest national 30 day stroke/mortality rates for carotid endarterectomy and elective abdominal aortic aneurysms(AAAs) at 0% over 5 years. His in-hospital mortality rate of 18% for emergency AAA repair was better than the UK average. He also had a 100% in-hospital lower limb bypass graft patency.
Indeed, Mr Yow’s extensive Consultant experience in major NHS University Teaching Hospitals and Professorial Vascular Units in the UK has equipped him in aspects of complex Vascular Surgery, Intensive Care Medicine, Vascular Trauma, Wound Care, Nutrition and Surgery in the Frail and Elderly to enable him to confidently and successfully take on high-risk, complex Vascular Surgery here in Malaysian private practice.
Mr Yow has a special interest in aortic and carotid surgery. He screens and treats abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) using both open surgery or a totally keyhole method called percutaneous EVAR (P-EVAR) where the aneurysm stent-graft is delivered through 3 mm groin cuts. This has lower operative mortality and has a shorter hospital stay than traditional open surgery.
He is particularly passionate in helping patients prevent major stroke with carotid surgery. In patients who have had a mini-stroke, major stroke/death can be prevented by an operation on the narrowed carotid artery called carotid endarterectomy(CEA). In major trials, this operation is safer and better at preventing strokes than stents. Mr Yow has one of the largest case series of carotid operations in Malaysia, having performed close to 200 CEAs in the UK and Malaysia with excellent outcomes.
His third area of specialist interest is in treatment of all leg ulcers and patients with gangrene. Dr Yow has performed over 300 successful arterial leg bypasses with 100% in-hospital bypass patency(success rate of bypasses being open). He also uses modern hybrid surgical techniques to save legs. These combine open surgery with keyhole techniques of angioplasty/stents to reduce operating times, blood loss, complications and large incisions for patients.
This expertise is increasingly important with the rise of diabetes globally. With this, there is an disturbing rise in atherosclerosis and blocked leg arteries leading to peripheral arterial disease(PAD) or peripheral arterial occlusive disease(PAOD). Blocked leg arteries from PAD lead to pain with walking(claudication) which then progresses to pain at night(rest pain) and ultimately, leg ulcers or gangrene. The latter condition is known as critical limb ischaemia(CLI). Fortunately with skilled intervention from Vascular and Endovascular Surgeons like Mr Yow, the limb can be saved from amputation.
Mr Yow recently performed a successful pioneering hybrid revision arm bypass in an Indonesian patient with digital(finger) gangrene. The patient had a clotting disorder(thrombophilia) and had a previously failed operation in Indonesia to remove the clot from his arm arteries. Mr Yow performed 2 complex operations to remove the clot from his subclavian and brachial arteries using a special angiographic balloon catheter (fluroscopically-guided Over-the-Wire Embolectomy) and then performed open surgery to reconstruct and bypass the patient’s brachial artery that had been damaged in the first operation.
This was featured in a major article in The Star newspaper (Online link to The Star). The operation resulted in limb salvage and prevention of major arm amputation. The patient has now returned to work as a school-teacher in Indonesia.
For varicose veins and venous ulcers, Mr Yow specialises in keyhole treatment of varicose veins using radiofrequency/microwave ablation (which is less painful than laser).
Mr Yow also has an extensive experience in arteriovenous fistulas(AVFs) for kidney dialysis. AVFs are the lifeline of dialysis patients. Mr Yow assesses and performs AVF surgery and monitors them postoperatively until maturation for dialysis. He also removes clot and performs angioplasty/surgery for old, blocked or failing fistulas, thus ensuring the greatest longevity of AV fistulas. In some situations, he performs arterio-venous grafts (AVGs) using synthetic grafts if the patient has no vein of their own for an AVF.
He is also a specialist in revision Vascular surgery including repeat Vascular Surgery in previous surgical fields, graft infections as well as Vascular trauma. He was selected by his peers via a rigorous process to be an ATLS Trauma Instructor and has experience dealing with iatrogenic and ballistics Vascular trauma. He has attended the renowned Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills(DSTS) course run by Mr David Nott, the acclaimed Medecins Sans Frontieres War Surgeon.
Mr Yow has a keen academic interest having presented and published peer-reviewed original research, letters and abstracts in internationally renowned, high-impact journals such as the British Journal of Surgery, Journal of Vascular Surgery, Lancet Neurology, Nitric Oxide and the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. As such, he believes strongly in practising the most up-to-date, evidence-based surgery.
Mr Yow is a passionate medical educator. He was appointed Clinical Tutor in several prestigious Medical Schools such as the Universities of Leicester, York, Birmingham and Exeter. He has taught on the Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient(CCrISP) and numerous ATLS courses around the UK. As an NHS consultant, he organised practice vivas for Vascular Surgical Registrars preparing for their Fellowship examinations. He continues this important role as public health educator by contributing to Malaysian newspapers and media outlets such as the The Star, New Straits Times, Sin Chew Jit Poh, China Press and BFM Radio. He posts regularly on Vascular diseases and their treatment on social media. Mr Yow currently has over 4,000 Instagram followers.
In his spare time, Mr Yow likes to devote time to his family. He enjoys tennis, gardening, cycling and climbing. Tennis is a huge part of his recreational life. He started playing at age 10 and went on to compete in major tournaments as a junior. He was a tennis coach with his father to cover some of his university expenses. Having represented Selangor state at MSSS level and captained his Medical School team, he still plays tennis competitively and league matches at Club level.
