Hospital undertakes pioneering heart surgery

A type of heart surgery that speeds up patients' recovery time is being used at a Wolverhampton hospital for the first time.

Anterior Right Thoracotomy aortic valve replacement (ART) has been described as a minimally invasive procedure.

It is being offered at the Heart and Lung Centre at New Cross Hospital, run by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

"The main benefit of the minimally invasive ART surgery is that recovery is rapid – there is no big cut, minimal bleeding and no damage to the breastbone." consultant cardiac surgeon Mr Mahmoud Abdelaziz said.

Tracy Jones, from Oswestry, underwent the surgery last September, after shortness of breath and high blood pressure left her needing a valve replacement due to the narrowing of her aortic heart valve.

Her husband Glyn Jones, said: "To be told she only had a life expectancy of four years before the operation was so scary, so we knew we had to have the operation.

"Initially, I thought we would be looking at a six-month recovery period, but to have that changed to a matter of weeks has really made a difference to our lives."

The grandmother-of-five added: "I am so grateful to the team for giving me my life back."

Abdelaziz said: "In the majority of patients, it has a recovery time of less than three weeks, compared to a recovery time of eight weeks to three months for traditional open surgery, which involves sawing through the breastbone with a long incision being made down to the top of the tummy."

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