Breakthrough procedure keeps your heart in sync
Patients from Southend with heart failure and heart blocks are set to benefit from a new procedure that helps speed up their treatment and recovery.
Doctors at Southend Hospital have for their first time carried out a procedure known as left bundle branch pacing (LBBP).
The procedure is helping to treat patients with a condition where they suffer from a blockage in the heart where its two sides fail to pump at the same time. LBBP helps to make them pump in synchronisation, reducing the risk of heart failure.
The complex procedure sees doctors pass a lead attached to a pacemaker and screw it onto the wall between the heart’s two sides so that their beat is synchronised.
The procedure is not only safer than available alternatives, but it also significantly reduces hospital stay, allowing patients to be discharged the same day after their procedure. It also means the hospital can treat more patients in one day and has successfully been introduced at the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre.
Dr Sajjad Mazhar, Consultant Cardiologist and part of the team that introduced this service, said: “The LBBP is very safe and helps a patient’s heart pump much better. We are currently using this method for patients whose heart structure means they can’t receive normal treatment. We are researching more into it so that we can treat more patients using the procedure.”
The team leading this service includes Dr Sajjad Mazhar, Dr Neil Srinivasan, Mark Passey and Katy Donaldson.