Healthy Hearts at Imperial College Healthcare

This year, Imperial College Healthcare has continued to successfully treat patients with heart conditions and help local people prevent heart disease.

Here you can read about the latest surgical techniques, our work with the Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, and our community-based preventative cardiology service, which is helping local people to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Hope for rare heart condition: our new acute aortic dissection service
Surgeons at Hammersmith, the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals Trusts have introduced a new, life-saving service for patients with a heart condition that is often fatal.

The service provides emergency surgery to patients with acute aortic dissection. This condition occurs when the inside wall of the aorta splits causing blood to flow between the layers of the aortic wall. This forces the layers apart and can cause the aorta to burst, leading to substantial blood loss. To repair this, surgeons need to replace the damaged section of the wall with a graft in a delicate and technical operation.

The new joint service will give patients access to heart surgeons with expertise in this condition 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to a dedicated surgical rota. Previously, patients would see one of up to 20 different surgeons at their nearest cardiac centre. Now they’ll be transferred by ambulance to the hospital ‘on-call’ that week and seen by one of six, expert surgeons.

The new service will look after patients from North West London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

New surgical technique spells quicker recovery for heart valve patients
Patients needing heart valve operations are recovering quicker, thanks to new keyhole surgery introduced this year at Imperial College Healthcare.

The surgical technique called a minimal thoracotomy means patients will now be operated on through a 5cm incision in their chest. Using the latest camera technology, surgeons will be able to view the patient’s heart on monitors in the theatre, allowing them to repair the valve without opening the patient’s chest or ‘splitting’ their breastbone.

This type of procedure is less traumatic and painful for patients, involves less blood loss and generally a quicker recovery time.

Patients having the procedure have typically left hospital five to six days after surgery. It also offers the aesthetic benefit of leaving patients with only a small, discrete scar on one side of the chest.

The procedure is being increasingly offered to patients who need a mitral valve repair, but has the potential to be used with other conditions too, such as atrial septal defect (ASD), atrial tumours and tricuspid and aortic valve repairs.

Case study
Hester, 56, from Queen’s Park, came to Imperial College Healthcare to have surgery in September 2010. She had been diagnosed previously as having the congenital heart condition, ASD where the blood flows between the left and right chambers of the heart.

Hester’s only symptoms were low energy. Physical exertion made her feel tired. But in November 2009, she was taken to hospital with chest pains, and later referred for surgery.

Hester felt the staff at the Trust explained the procedure and benefits of the surgery to her well. She understood that to have a sternotomy – effectively breaking her breast bone – would be more invasive and likely to keep her in hospital for longer than a minimal thoracotomy, which she decided to have.

“I am a very active person and I’m not someone who likes to stay in bed,” she said. “So this was the right operation for me. I was up and about quite quickly.”

The staff at the hospital made her feel supported too. As a single mother with a busy job as a family learning and development manager, Hester only had a small window of time to have the operation.

Talking of her experience at the Trust, she said: “I couldn’t fault one person, from the consultant through to the dinner lady – they all played a part in my care.

“Every patient needs to be seen as a whole person. In this respect, Imperial College Healthcare was superb. The consultants and registrars took onboard my fears and concerns and dealt with them in an efficient and sensitive manner.”

Hester was admitted to hospital in September, one day before her operation. She was discharged five days later and able to go back to work in December.

“As a woman you’re naturally concerned about scarring around the breast,” she said, “but my scar is only three inches long. Over time, I know it won’t show.”

Months on, Hester has now recuperated. She has noticed a difference in her energy levels and feels less tired.