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Surgeons have completed the UK’s first operation to replace an old prosthetic heart valve.

Experts at King’s College Hospital have become the first to swap a worn out replacement heart valve with a new one via keyhole surgery.

This means that patients deemed too ill to undergo open heart surgery could still be able to have their old valves replaced and may save thousands of lives a year.

Olaf Wendler, the surgeon who carried out the operation, said: "The fact that the minimally invasive technique developed at King’s has now been used successfully to replace a prosthetic heart valve is a major achievement, and could help to prolong and improve the lives of many patients in the UK."

Around 6,000 patients have aortic valve replacements in the UK each year, which last about ten years before they begin to fail.

Because patients undergoing repeat operations are more likely to suffer from complications, they are rarely put forward to have prosthetic valves replaced.

The new keyhole surgery is less invasive and could mean that more frail and elderly patients are able to have replacements.

Valve replacement may be performed when the aortic valve, which lets blood from the left side of the heart into the main artery supplying the body, becomes damaged or diseased.

The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with heart conditions.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Medical Developments and treatments.