Pioneering heart unit to expand

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/health/7742591.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A heart unit that pioneered a technique the government says could save hundreds of lives a year, says it will have to expand to cope with demand.

Middlesbrough's James Cook Hospital was part of a trail using emergency angioplasty on heart attack victims.

Last month, a Department of Health study concluded the trial had been a success.

The hospital already performs 370 coronary angioplasty operations a month and is now hoping to open a fourth lab.

The process, which can be conducted while the patient is still conscious, involves feeding a catheter into the patient's wrist, manoeuvring it up the arm and into the heart.

Undergoing heart bypass surgery

A balloon is used to widen narrowed blood vessels around the heart, which are then held open by a small scaffold.

Clinical evidence gathered by the Department of Health shows that using angioplasty as the main treatment for heart attack patients could save around 240 lives and prevent around 260 strokes a year.

The North East of England has some of the poorest heart health in the country and the cardiothoracic unit at James Cook Hospital also performs 150 surgical heart operations a year.