Surgeons at Newcastle Hospitals have become the first in the UK to perform a procedure using a robot to tackle blood clots in the heart.
Malcolm Barlow from Chester-le-Street is believed to be the first patient outside America and Italy to undergo the keyhole procedure, which uses a robotic device to attach a clip in the heart, making the surgery much less invasive.
Malcolm has arrythmia – a condition which causes an irregular heart beat – and his heart would go into palpitations which caused him anxiety. The condition also brought the chance of a blood clot being released to his brain and causing a stroke.
The former police superintendent had further complexities, having overcome two brain haemorrhages last year, one of which caused him to experience a black out to his eyesight resulting in a crash on his motorbike during a road trip to Scotland.
Malcolm, an advanced motorcyclist, said that he planned on taking some time to decide whether to give up his beloved motorbike, which he has previously rode from Lands End to John O’Groats and raised £3,000 for charity.
But the accident decided for him. Luckily, he wasn’t seriously injured but did experience a second brain bleed shortly afterwards. Both brain bleeds required emergency surgery.
Malcolm also has low blood platelets, which increases the risk of bleeding, so anti-clotting medicine is not an option and other heart procedures, such as inserting a wire into blood vessels of the heart, or open-heart surgery, were ruled out.
Surgeon’s Mr Dharmendra Agrawal and Professor Stephen Clark from the Freeman Hospital devised the minimally invasive robotic procedure to correct Malcolm’s heart rhythm and prevent any blood clots being release from his heart.
Mr Agrawal said: “This was a challenging case and we planned this unique approach tailored especially to this patient. The irregular heartbeat means that blood is not effectively pumped out of the heart which may result in a clot forming, which can cause a potentially disabling or fatal stroke if it reaches the brain.
“The operation is safe and fast, lasting only 30 minutes. Malcolm had minimal pain afterwards, as the incision was a tiny 8mm, and he returned home the next day to a full recovery.”
Around 1.4 million people have atrial fibrillation in the UK, the condition is usually more common in older patients, some who may be suitable for surgery if they weren’t able to have anticoagulation medicine to help prevent blood clots, which is the standard treatment to reduce their risk of stroke.
There are other surgical heart procedures which aim to remedy this, but they take much longer and as the clip is applied from inside the heart, and differences in the body structure reduce its effectiveness compared to the surgical external clip.
Professor Clark said: “We believe this is the first time combining the robotic device with a minimally invasive procedure has been performed in the UK – we know of one other case in America and one in Italy. We combined our cardiac and thoracic expertise in each element of the procedure to give Malcolm the best possible outcome.
“We videoed the internal process of attaching the clip to the heart with the robotic arm for publication in scientific journals, to guide other surgeons in carrying out this operation, which has great potential to benefit a large population with similar conditions.”
Motorbike enthusiast Malcolm, 81, lives with his wife Jean, is father to a grown-up daughter and has one grandchild.
“I’m really pleased to have had the operation and I’m delighted that the surgeons combined their skills carry this out for the first time.
“My family are very happy it has gone well.”
