Sussex grandfather undergoes pioneering heart valve surgery in UK first
Ron Thompson was up and walking his dogs just two days after the procedure
A grandfather from Sussex has become the first person in the UK to undergo a pioneering new form of heart valve surgery.
Ron Thompson, 81, from Sayers Common, near Hassocks, had the operation last week and was back home walking his dog only two days later.
He had a leaking valve in his heart and would've normally required open-heart surgery to correct. But for the first time in the UK a procedure was carried out without leaving a chest scar.
Ron was treated at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, which is one of a number of hospitals across Europe taking part in a trial to discover how successful the new procedure can be.
The team was led by Professor David Hildick-Smith (interventional Cardiologist) and Dr James Cockburn (interventional Cardiologist). Professor Hildick-Smith said “It’s a completely new way of implanting a mitral valve in the heart; it’s never been done in the UK before. The standard way to do it is with open-heart surgery, which is a major invasion of the body and requires the heart be stopped for the duration of the operation.
“This procedure is done without interrupting the heart while it pumps. This sort of procedure has been done with the aortic valve but the mitral valve is different, it is much more intricate and more difficult to get to.
“We have had a lot of success in doing a similar procedure on the aortic valve, and we are involved in many trials in this arena so we were very honoured to be chosen to lead the study for the UK and do the first cases.
“For this new approach, we go in through an artery in the groin and go up to the heart. It is an ingenious technology and requires us to make a lasso around the base of the leaky mitral valve. This part is technically challenging. We then go in through a vein in the other leg, puncture between the sides of the heart and put in the valve through this puncture into the correct place, pushing aside the leaking one.
“We watch it all on ultrasound and x-ray to be fully in control of what we are doing. The net result is a fully functioning new valve without open heart surgery.”
He added: “It is pretty technically demanding and we had people from Canada and California - people who had done the procedure themselves – watching on and guiding us as we went along while the whole process was being filmed by a crew. It was a great experience and worked really well.
“It’s great news for the future that this works. It is going to be better for patients. There are no deep incisions, no cutting into the chest, no stopping the heart or putting patients on a bypass machine to do the breathing and the circulation of blood. And overall it was much quicker.
“Ron was fully awake an hour after the procedure and was able to go home after two days whereas with open heart surgery you are probably talking 7-10 days. We hope it will make a big difference to his life. We are delighted that the procedure went really well and we are looking forward to being able to offer it to others.”
Currently the equipment used for the operation can only fit one size and shape of heart and Ron was chosen because his was a perfect fit.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Ron said: "I had a triple bypass heart operation and was in hospital for 3 weeks. This time I was in hospital on the Wednesday, and Friday I came home. The following day, Saturday, I was out walking the dog.
After I had my previous heart operation they did some monitoring with scans every now and then. They found my mitral valve was leaking. I got contacted and they said 'would I be interested in taking part in this experimental procedure?'
"I had amazing treatment in the Brighton hospital. All the staff, not enough words of praise I could put forward for them. All the staff, excellent."