It is first thing in the morning and nurses are waiting to take Michael Robinson to theatre.<\/p>\n
He has been living with atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart rhythm problem, affecting 1.4m people in the UK, that can cause your heart to beat irregularly and often too fast.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s very debilitating. On my worst day I feel very tired, my heart rate increases rapidly – I could walk for 2 or 3 miles and be okay, I could walk for 100 yards and it would hit me.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Michael was diagnosed five years ago after his younger brother died from a heart issue, but is hoping new cutting edge treatment will dramatically improve his quality of life.<\/p>\n
Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital is the first hospital in the UK to trial the Volt Pulsed Field Ablation System (VPA), a procedure which stops irregular heart rhythms when medication fails.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I got quite a shock when I was diagnosed as I had been pretty active but after my younger brother died, we all got checked out and I was diagnosed with AF five years ago, I’d never heard of it,\u00a0\u00bb Michael said.<\/p>\n
Michael added: \u00ab\u00a0I was to go on holiday and had to pull out and recently attended a wedding reception but had to come home after half an hour, hopefully this treatment will normalise things for me.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
There are several benefits to VPA, including allowing more patients to be treated each day \u2013 up to three – as opposed to one and quicker recovery.<\/p>\n
As patients are placed under conscious sedation an anaesthetist isn’t required.<\/p>\n
Patients are also admitted and discharged on the same day, freeing up valuable hospital beds.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s a wee bit scary, but I’ve a lot of faith in the staff,\u00a0\u00bb the 67-year-old said as he went to theatre.<\/p>\n
A normal heart rate should be between 60 and 100 beats per minute, but in people with AF it can be considerably higher than 100.<\/p>\n
The progressive condition can increase the risk of stroke and heart failure.<\/p>\n
Symptoms include a fast, irregular, or pounding heart (palpitations), dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest discomfort.<\/p>\n
It’s estimated that many are living with the condition undetected and unaware of the health risks.<\/p>\n
Episodes may start suddenly and last from seconds to days, sometimes causing no symptoms at all.<\/p>\n
Sixty patients have been treated at the RVH during the trial, which started in September.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This benefits the hospital when it comes to patient flow and addressing waiting lists, also there is no need for an anaesthetist which is good as there is a global shortage of specialists,\u00a0\u00bb Dr Nick Cromie, a cardiac electrophysiologist, said.<\/p>\n
Cromie explained that the Volt PFA System uses high energy electrical pulses to precisely target and treat abnormal cardiac tissue.<\/p>\n
This minimises the risk of damage to surrounding structures such as the oesophagus or blood vessels.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This system is a big step forward in both patient safety and the hospital being a lot more efficient with its staff and use of theatre time,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
One of several consultants at the RVH who is carrying out the procedure, Cromie said it’s all about preventing more serious illness like stroke and heart attack.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We entered the blood stream at the top of the inner thigh and then travelled up through the blood stream all the way up to Michael’s heart – where we punctured a small hole to access the chamber where the problem is and then inflated a small balloon.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0That helps us conduct electrical signals in the catheter into the heart tissue which needs treated,\u00a0\u00bb he explained.<\/p>\n
After a pilot in Belfast some hospitals in England are rolling out the Volt PFA system, which was created by the global healthcare company Abbott.<\/p>\n
Dr Riyaz Somani, consultant cardiologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, was the first electrophysiologist in England to use the new system.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Our initial experience has been overwhelmingly positive, with all patients tolerating the procedure very well with excellent acute success rates,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
Michael had previously been treated using cryotherapy, a minimally invasive procedure in which small areas of heart tissue causing irregular heartbeats are frozen and destroyed, however, patients often experience discomfort including gastric upset.<\/p>\n
Also, many don’t experience a full recovery.<\/p>\n
Seven hours after being taken to theatre Michael is ready to go home.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The Royal Victoria Hospital has been so good to me – I am feeling much better already \u2013 in fact I might even go and play a game of football,\u00a0\u00bb he said laughing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is first thing in the morning and nurses are waiting to take Michael Robinson to theatre. He has been living with atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart rhythm problem, affecting 1.4m people in the UK, that can cause your heart to beat irregularly and often too fast. \u00ab\u00a0It’s very debilitating. On my worst day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}