Heart failure operation first in UK

Surgeons at King's College Hospital have used a pioneering procedure which can improve the function of failing hearts. The operation, a form of "cardiac sewing", is the first of its kind in the UK and involves removing scar tissue whilst the heart is still beating, reducing the size of the heart so that it can pump more efficiently. Patients with heart failure struggle to pump blood around the body, which can leave them breathless during make mild exercise and day-to-day tasks. Sevket Gocer, 58, was the first patient to be treated in the UK. His heart function is said to have "improved significantly" after the operation. Mr Olaf Wendler, a professor of cardiac surgery at King's College Hospital, commented: "In the technique we have now used for the first time in the UK, one does not need to stop the heart, one does not even necessarily need to place the patient on a heart-lung machine. "It's a less traumatic and less invasive type of procedure." The procedure is also being trialled by other hospitals across Europe