Cardiologists have pioneered the world's first non- surgical bypass operation to turn a vein into an artery using a new technique to divert blood flow in a man with severe heart disease. The keyhole procedure, which avoids the extensive invasive surgery of a conventional bypass, will offer hope to tens of thousands of people at risk from heart attacks.Coronary heart disease, where the arteries are progressively silted up with fatty deposits, is responsible for more than 160,000 deaths in Britain each year. Although major heart surgery is becoming commonplace, with more than 28,000 bypass operations in the UK annually, it is traumatic for patients and involves a long recovery period.The new technique was carried out by an international team of doctors who performed the non-invasive surgery on a 53-year-old German patient.The diabetic patient, who has not been named, had suffered severe chest pains because one of his coronary arteries was severely blocked and depriving his heart muscle of oxygen, but he was considered by doctors to be unsuitable for traditional bypass surgery.According to a report in today's Circulation, journal of the American Heart Association, cardiologists developed a special catheter that was inserted into a leg artery, threaded up through the aorta to the top of the diseased artery, which was the only part still open and receiving blood.Then, guided by ultrasound, a physician pushed a needle from inside the catheter through the artery wall and into the adjacent vein. A thin, flexible wire was threaded through the needle and the needle and catheter were withdrawn, leaving the wire behind and a small angioplasty balloon, which was used to widen the channel.Finally, the vein was blocked off above the new channel allowing blood from the artery to be rerouted down the vein. After the procedure, the vein effectively became an artery, carrying blood in the reverse direction to before and feeding the heart tissue with oxygen.Dr Stephen Oesterle, who led the team, said: "This milestone marks the first coronary artery bypass performed with a catheter.
The technology offers a realistic hope for truly minimally invasive bypass procedures in the future."One of the most invasive things you can do in medicine is coronary artery bypass surgery. Our ultimate goal is to replace traditional coronary artery bypass with a procedure that does not require surgery," said Dr Oesterle, who is director of cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.* A clot-busting drug has been found to grow new blood vessels in children with heart disease. Researchers in Japan studied seven children with blocked arteries. They exercised on a bicycle machine twice a day for 10 days and were given the anti-clotting drug heparin before each session.
In every case, the therapy increased the size of the blocked artery allowing more blood to pass through.. An 84-year-old man is having to make regular journeys of 100 miles to pick up NHS drugs for his disabled wife because a local health authority has refused to allow doctors to prescribe it, contrary to official guidelines. An 84-year-old man is having to make regular journeys of 100 miles to pick up NHS drugs for his disabled wife because a local health authority has refused to allow doctors to prescribe it, contrary to official guidelines. The case of Thomas Woodward and his wife Barbara, 79, vividly demonstrates that government attempts to end so-called "postcode prescribing" have failed, doctors say. In principle the drug, Aricept, has been approved for NHS prescription everywhere.In January the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) said that Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, should be universally available.Mr Woodward, a former brewery worker, moved from Swindon to Northampton in October In Swindon the drug was prescribed free.
