Breakthrough could help identify patients who may be at risk of potentially ... trends now
A tiny balloon may be able to help doctors identify heart surgery patients who could be at risk of a potentially fatal complication.
The tube-shaped balloon — which is just a couple of centimetres in length — is placed in the chest at the end of bypass surgery and other types of major heart procedures.
Surgeons insert a thin wire through the chest with the deflated balloon on the end and, once in place inside the pericardial sac (the fibrous sac the heart sits in), the balloon is inflated.
The other end of the wire is attached to a monitor, which measures changes in pressure on the balloon.
A tiny balloon may be able to help doctors identify heart surgery patients who could be at risk of a potentially fatal complication (stock image)
The tube-shaped balloon — which is just a couple of centimetres in length — is placed in the chest at the end of bypass surgery and other types of major heart procedures
The idea is that monitoring this pressure for several days as the patient recovers in hospital will provide an early warning of a potentially fatal condition called cardiac tamponade.
This occurs when the pericardial sac fills up with blood or fluid that’s leaked from blood vessels damaged during heart surgery.
As the sac fills with liquid, it compresses the heart, stopping it beating properly and drastically reducing blood flow to other vital organs.
The condition usually develops within 48 hours of a major heart procedure. It is regarded as a medical emergency because, if it’s not spotted quickly, it can trigger a fatal cardiac arrest.
Although a rare condition, it is responsible for 30 per cent of deaths from complications arising from heart surgery.
The experimental balloon device, developed by heart surgeon Hazem Fallouh, from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, could be a solution.
In addition to the balloon, a second wire with a special sensor on the end of it — called a Doppler probe — is inserted into the same area.
This then bounces high-frequency soundwaves off red blood cells in the heart to get a picture of how well blood is flowing through arteries.
It also acts as an alert to medics by signalling when blood flow is stalling — indicating that there might be a problem.
Both devices — the balloon and the probe — are easily withdrawn once the patient is in the clear, usually after 48 hours.
Patients being monitored with this new device have to remain in hospital, and may have to stay longer than is usual.
However, if it means cardiac tamponade can be identified early, when it can be treated, it would be a huge step forward.
A sudden drop in blood pressure is currently one of only a few warning signs of cardiac tamponade.
If doctors spot it quickly, they can treat it by draining off the excess fluid.
However, the condition can easily be mistaken for other conditions such as congestive heart failure — where the heart is not pumping properly.
If it’s not spotted in time, cardiac tamponade often results in emergency open-heart surgery to ease the pressure on the heart — a procedure with a mortality rate of up to 70 per cent.
The Pericardial Device to monitor Cardiac output and diagnose Tamponade (PerDeCT) is currently a prototype.
However, its developers were recently awarded a £500,000 grant by Innovate UK, a public body that finances groundbreaking technologies, and it is due to undergo testing at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the next year or so.
Professor Gerard Stansby, an honorary consultant vascular surgeon at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘This sounds potentially very useful, as long as it doesn’t have adverse effects such as
