13 October 2009 - A new approach to heart bypass surgery at King’s College Hospital is helping to speed up patients’ recovery, cut infection rates and minimise scarring from surgery.
Cardiac surgeons at King’s are confident the procedure - called endoscopy assisted minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery (ENDO-MIDCAB) – will radically change the treatment of selected patients at King’s with chest pain caused by narrowing of blood vessels associated with coronary artery disease.
King’s – part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) - is one of only a small number of hospitals in the UK using this technique to treat patients needing coronary artery bypass surgery.
Coronary artery bypass surgery involves bypassing blocked arteries - which supply blood to the heart – with a new blood vessel (graft) which is attached beyond the block in the coronary artery. This helps to alleviate symptoms of chest pain (called angina) and drastically reduces the chances of the patient suffering a fatal heart attack.
Traditionally, surgeons have had to make large incisions over the breast bone to access the heart and the blocked vessel. The new technique being used at King’s enables the surgery to be performed via a much smaller incision 3-5 centimetres wide over the side of the chest.
The surgeon inserts a special surgical camera (endoscope) through the incision so he can see pictures of the heart. Using specialised instruments, the surgeon then performs the bypass surgery so enabling blood to flow more easily.
Mr Ranjit Deshpande, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at King’s, has so far performed this operation on 13 patients with the help of a specialised surgical team. These are all patients for whom angioplasty (whereby a stent or scaffold is inserted into the artery to ease blood flow) is not a suitable treatment option. The results so far have been excellent. He said:
“This technique is fast establishing itself as a real alternative to open heart surgery and is currently used for patients with single or double vessel coronary artery disease. The combination of new high definition pictures and more sophisticated surgical instruments is helping to change the way we operate on selected patients with the condition.”
Notes to editors
1. For further information contact:
Chris Rolfe, Corporate Communications,
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Tel: 020 3299 3006, Fax: 020 3299 3207
e-mail: chris.rolfe@kch.nhs.uk
www.kch.nhs.uk
2. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching hospitals, with over 6,600 staff providing around 800,000 patient contacts a year. King’s has a unique profile, with a full range of local hospital services for people in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark as well as specialist services to patients from further afield. The Trust is recognized internationally for its work in liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, cardiac and haemato-oncology. King’s also plays a key role in the training and education of medical, nursing and dental students with its academic partner, King’s College London. For more information, visit www.kch.nhs.uk
3. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.
King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity.
For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org
