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Heart bypass surgery - new discovery could lead to less invasive surgery

A pioneering procedure offers the hope of a less painful heart bypass technique than traditional heart bypasses.

Doctors in Germany succeeded in turning a vein into an artery to bypass a blockage in the heart of a 53-year-old patient.

The operation works a little like redirecting traffic. The blood is sent to the heart muscle instead of going to the heart's pumping chambers.

Dr Stephen Oesterle, the author of a report into the procedure in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, said: "One of the most invasive things you can do in medicine is heart bypass surgery. Our ultimate goal is to replace traditional heart bypass treatment with a procedure that does not require surgery."

Heart Bypass Pain
In traditional heart bypass operations, the chest is opened and a blood vessel from the calf or the chest is used to bypass the clogged artery. But this is an extremely invasive procedure, which requires lengthy recovery time, and which can be very painful. Figures from the American Heart Association show about 100,000 patients a year might not be eligible for heart bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty, because their arteries are too badly clogged.

They could be the ones receiving this new heart bypass technique, though doctors are also looking at laser surgery and gene therapy. The German heart bypass operation was carried out in November 1999 at the Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Brüder in Trier, Germany.

The patient had a heart artery blocked by a build-up of fatty deposits in the vessel walls. Only the top of the artery was working and receiving blood. Dr Oesterle said veins could be used because even when arteries were badly affected, veins were seldom affected.

How it was done
Coronary arteries take blood from the aorta to the heart muscle. Coronary veins return deoxygenated blood to the heart's pumping chambers, in what Dr Oesterle describes as a "vascular highway".

In the procedure, a catheter system, guided by ultrasound was inserted into an artery in the leg then threaded up through the aorta and into the coronary arteries. A needle was guided through the artery wall into the adjacent vein. Then a thin, flexible wire was threaded through the needle, and the needle and catheter were removed. The wire was attached to a small angioplasty balloon which was used to widen the channel and a tube-like device was inserted to keep it open for blood to pass through. The vein was then blocked above the new channel which had been created.

Blood now flowed in the opposite direction, towards the heart muscle, which had previously been starved of oxygen. Dr Timothy Gardner, spokesman for the American Heart Association said: "The technique described in this report is ingenious and will revolutionise heart bypass procedures."

But he said it could only be used for a specific type of heart bypass, where an artery is open in the first portion, closed in the middle and still supplying good heart muscle. Further trials are to be carried out, with 20 patients set to receive the operation in Germany, and clinical trials due to begin in the US later this year

Benefits to future heart bypass patients
Melanie Raddon, cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation said the procedure was a "pioneering way of carrying out life saving coronary heart bypass operations". She told BBC News Online: "Although major heart surgery is becoming commonplace in the UK - with more than 28,000 heart bypass operations taking place each year - it is still traumatic for patients, often with a long recovery period.

"Non invasive surgery, such as this new method, could help minimise the risks, bringing great benefits to the patient." But she warned more trials were needed, and said it could be years before the procedure was routinely carried out in hospitals.

"It's important to note that this is the first time that this new technique has been performed on a patient. "Whilst it is an exciting development, it should be highlighted that this may not be suitable for all patients requiring heart bypass surgery."

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