Heart failure operation first for UK

The first operation aimed at improving the way in which failing hearts function has been performed in the UK. The pioneering procedure treats hearts while they are still beating, making the experience less traumatic for patients. By reducing the size of a heart, doctors hope to ensure that it pumps more efficiently and so reduces the risk of total cardiac failure.

Those that suffer from heart failure can find even mild exercise taxing, as the heart is unable to fully pump blood around the body. The failure of the heart can occur for a number of reasons, with the most common being blocked arteries. When the arteries become blocked it causes a heart attack, which in turn results in heart tissue dying. The tissue then gets replaced by scar tissue that cannot beat, ultimately reducing the effectiveness of the organ.

The scar tissue is able to stretch over time, which makes the heart's chambers larger, further decreasing its efficiency. As more blood is able to enter each chamber, the heart has to try and force larger quantities of blood out and around the body. This is already made difficult by the areas of the organ that are unable to beat any more and so the heart becomes steadily weaker. 

In order to increase the heart's ability to pump blood, surgeons developed a technique that would remove the scar tissue while the heart is still beating. This means that only healthy tissue, which is able to beat, is left, which makes the heart more efficient even though it is smaller in size. 

The scar tissue is removed by a type of "cardiac sewing" that makes the chambers of the heart smaller, allowing it to pump blood more easily. A wire is inserted through two sections of the heart muscle, being stopped at each end by an anchor device. Upon tightening the wire, the chamber of the heart is reduced in size.

Upon using this procedure on the first UK patient, 58 year-old Sevket Gocer, it was found that his heart function "improved significantly". In total one of the chambers in his heart was reduced by about a quarter, allowing the organ to function better.