23 May 2011
Surgeons at Royal Brompton, Harefield and Hammersmith hospitals are collaborating to provide a new emergency surgery service to patients with acute acortic dissection - a rare condition where many patients die before they even reach hospital.
Since February, patients have been able to access heart surgeons with particular expertise in this condition from two of London’s top trusts. As the first step in a formal partnership between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London, the surgeons have created a dedicated surgical rota, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help ensure that more people with this condition survive.
The three hospitals see an average of 50 acute aortic dissection patients each year, who are now transferred by ambulance to the ‘on-call’ hospital and seen by one of six expert surgeons. In the past, patients North West London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire would have been taken to their nearest cardiac centre where one of up to 20 different surgeons would care for them.
Professor John Pepper, consultant cardiac surgeon at Royal Brompton said: “Early recognition and rapid transfer to a specialist team is vital to successfully treat acute aortic dissection. Most patients are referred through accident and emergency or a chest pain clinic. Since it started, every indication is that patients coming through this collaborative service have a much better chance of survival. We are now looking at how we can diagnose the condition earlier to ensure the best possible care and treatment for patients.”
Mr Prakash Punjabi, one of the cardiothoracic surgeons from Hammersmith Hospital, said: “We hope that by concentrating our combined expertise within this service, we’ll be able to ensure that more people survive, and with better outcomes.”
Surgeons hope the partnership will also help them streamline their aortic dissection data to better understand the nature of the disease and help improve patients’ long-term prospects.
Aortic dissection happens 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 must replace the damaged section of the wall with a graft in a delicate and highly technical operation.
