Pioneering implant to be offered to patients with debilitating heart failure

A new nerve-stimulating battery-powered implant is to be made available to patients in the UK with severe heart failure, offering hope to patients where standard treatments provide no relief.

The implant, known as Barostim Neo, is sited in the chest below the collar-bone. A wire protruding from a small generator is connected beneath the patient’s skin beside one of the two main blood vessels in the neck, delivering electrical pulses to nerves in the neck. This stimulation is vital in easing the strain on the heart caused by heart failure, thereby leading to an improvement in symptoms.

Heart failure affects around 500,000 people in the UK. It usually follows damage to the heart muscle, often caused by a heart attack. The chambers within the heart respond by stretching so that they are able to hold more blood. However, although this keeps the circulation moving, in the long term the muscle weakens and loses power.

As heart failure develops, blood is pumped through the lungs too slowly, which starves the body of oxygen and leads to extreme tiredness and breathlessness. A lack of oxygen releases hormones to make the blood clot, and that raises the risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke.

The new implant is able to regulate the blood pressure and reduce the pulse. Tests have also indicated that heart function improves.

A major international clinical trial is currently running at five UK hospitals, offering the treatment to NHS patients.

Consultant cardiologist at the Royal Bromptom & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in London, Dr Rebecca Lane, said “This device is for patients who have exhausted all other treatment options. A few months back, we would simply have had to tell them to accept a miserable life, often stuck in their homes.

“Now there is something which could help them feel better, to walk around, and perhaps live longer.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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