Next ‘leg’ of recovery much quicker for coronary heart disease patients - thanks to new pilot scheme
Patient recovery times for heart patients are improving thanks to a less invasive way of moving veins from a patient’s leg to their heart.
The pilot scheme at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC), known as endoscopic vein harvest (EVH), is a minimally invasive procedure for patients who are having a coronary artery bypass graft.
Veins are taken from a patient’s leg and are used to pump blood to the heart, with the patient now only needing two small incisions during the procedure, rather than open surgery, as was previously needed.
Prajeesh Mohanan, Senior Surgical Care Practitioner at the Essex CTC, said: “This fantastic procedure reduces the risk of infection, means the patient has less pain, minimal scarring and has increased mobility sooner, which means they can begin cardiac rehabilitation quicker.”
One of those patients who has benefitted is David Simms, 78, from Hatfield Peverel, near Chelmsford, who had a heart attack at the end of January this year. Almost two months later and the former Physical Activity Trainer is back on the road to recovery.
David said: “After my procedure I expected to see lots of scarring, but there is hardly anything. It has been remarkable, in fact you’d hardly know I’d had anything done, but previously I would have had a very large scar. I’ve been back on my recumbent bike and building my strength back up much sooner than I thought I would.”
If he’d not had the EVH procedure, then David would have been at higher risk of an infection and he would unlikely be at the recovery stage he is at now
Prajeesh said: “We’ve only been able to run this pilot scheme thanks to the support of a legacy donation through Mid and South Essex Hospitals Charity, which has given us enough funding to allow us to do almost 50 such procedures.
“By doing this we aim to be able to show what a huge difference we can make to the lives of our patients, and hopefully secure it as the standard way of doing this procedure at the Trust.”