Heart patients from York are having operations using a pioneering new technique which avoids the risk of brain injury and may help them recover more quickly.

Chest surgeon Alex Cale is the first in Yorkshire and one of only a handful in the country to use technology which allows him to operate on the heart with pinpoint accuracy - while it is still beating.

The breakthrough has come thanks to the new Octopus Stabilising Machine, which he is using instead of a heart and lung machine while performing coronary artery surgery.

Mr Cale, who sees patients at York District Hospital one day a week, has used the machine in operations on about 20 people at Hull's Castle Hill Hospital since March 10. Up to 400 heart patients a year, including some from York, could benefit.

The Octopus machine is so called because of its suction "tentacles" which are attached to the heart to hold it still.

Until now a heart and lung machine has been used which stops the heart beating and takes over the job of the heart and lungs, to allow the operation to be carried out safely.

Mr Cale said: "The really ground-breaking point about this is that we can operate on a heart while it is still beating, eliminating the small potential risk of brain injury that the heart and lung machine may cause. The heart and lung machine, however, is still essential for most open-heart operations.

"Patients who have been operated on using the new machine seem to get home a day or two earlier, which has a cost benefit to the NHS as each day in hospital costs about £250 per patient.

"Up to now the usual length of stay for coronary artery bypass patients has been seven days. Using the new technique it is about five days."

Coronary artery bypass surgery is performed on patients suffering from angina caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries.

It involves taking a piece of artery or vein from elsewhere in the body and attaching it to the heart artery, either side of the narrowing, to allow more blood to pass through and hopefully reduce the risk of the patient suffering a heart attack.

Leading heart surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub was one of the first to use the Octopus system designed by Medronics. It is also used at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, and Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Mr Cale who was trained by Prof Yacoub, went to Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, to watch him perform the surgery using the new technique and has subsequently brought it to Castle Hill Hospital.

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