Cardiac surgery

Papworth Hospital is one of the UK’s leading and largest specialist providers of cardiac surgery including coronary artery bypass grafting and the UK’s largest valve repair/replacement centre Papworth Hospital performs more major heart operations than any other unit in the UK (around 2300 per year).

All types of heart surgery in adults are available, including the following:

• Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is an operation to bypass narrowed coronary arteries in order to relieve angina and help prevent heart attacks. Several approaches are available at Papworth including standard CABG, beating heart CABG, minimally invasive CABG and hybrid revascularisation.
• Aortic valve replacement is an operation in which a narrowed or leaky aortic valve is replaced by a valve made out of tissue or artificial material to relieve breathlessness and to help prevent heart failure. Papworth offers all types of aortic valve replacement as well as TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation).
• Mitral valve surgery is an operation to repair or replace a narrowed or leaky mitral valve to relieve breathlessness and to help prevent heart failure. Papworth offers both approaches and has the largest number of successful mitral valve repair operations in the UK.
• Surgery of the aorta (the body’s largest blood vessel as it exits the heart) is carried out to treat or prevent complications such as aneurysm (ballooning out of the artery) and rupture. Papworth carries out more operations on the thoracic aorta than anywhere in the UK.
• Arrhythmia surgery is carried out to correct disturbances of heart rhythm. For example, Papworth offers the surgical MAZE procedure for atrial fibrillation.
• The only UK hospital to offer Pulmonary Endarterectomy (PEA) surgery for pulmonary hypertension.

In addition, Papworth specialises in the following:

• Dealing with complex and superspecialist heart conditions.
• Providing a service for offering operations to high-risk patients who are denied treatment elsewhere.
• Combined and multiple procedures, especially in the elderly.

Papworth survival exceeded the most recent national figures for all of the following:

• Coronary bypass operation
• Heart valve operations
• Operations on the aorta
• Combined valve and coronary operations
• All other major heart operations

Results of heart surgery at Papworth are continuously and meticulously scrutinised and survival rates are amongst the best that can be achieved in the UK and worldwide.

Surgeons at the hospital routinely review the survival of their patients after heart surgery. Every month, the results of the previous twelve months are examined. Survival is compared with the national results and assessed with regard to casemix (how old and sick the patients are).

Survival for all operations, including complex, repeat, multiple and emergency operations, was 97.7% and survival for non-emergency operations was 98.3%.

Papworth survival exceeded the most recent national figures for all of the following:

• coronary bypass operation
• heart valve operations
• operations on the aorta
• combined valve and coronary operations
• all other major heart operations

In the year to November 2011, survival for all operations (including complex, repeat, multiple, urgent, emergency and salvage operations) was 98.1% and survival for elective operations was 98.9%.

"Heart surgery in the UK is now so good that, as a whole, British hospitals have death rates which are consistently lower than standard risk models predict, but even taking this into account cardiac surgery mortality at Papworth this year was less than half the expected mortality in comparison with the most recent British results." said Mr Nashef, consultant cardiac surgeon.

"Patients choose to come to Papworth because, as an international centre of excellence, we are able to attract the best, most highly skilled staff and deliver the very best results for our patients." said Mr Stephen Bridge, Chief Executive, Papworth Hospital.

Papworth Hospital Consulant Surgeons

Mr Pedro Catarino Consultant Surgeon	Mr Max Codispoti Cardiac Surgeon
Mr John Dunning Consultant Surgeon	Mr David Jenkins Consultant Surgeon
Mr Stephen Large Consultant Surgeon	Mr Suku Nair Consultant Surgeon
Mr Sam Nashef Consultant Surgeon	Ms Catherine Sudarshan Consultant Surgeon
Mr Steven Tsui Consultant Surgeon	Mr Frank Wells Consultant Surgeon

Cardiac surgery at Papworth is supported by:

Critical Care

The 32-bed critical care area (CCA) comprises eight cardiac recovery (CRU) beds dedicated to the care and treatment of patients for the first 24 hours following open heart surgery.

Anaesthesia

The consultant anaesthetists are all specialists in providing anaesthesia for patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. Consultant anaesthetists with a specific interest in critical care (intensivists) lead the daily care of all patients admitted to the critical care area, working closely with all other specialists within the hospital.

Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)

Papworth Hospital is one of five hospitals commissioned by the National Specialised Commissioning Team to provide ECMO to patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) a life-threatening condition with high mortality. This specialist retrieval team is available 24 hours a day to go rapidly to stabilise and retrieve patients referred to the service. Papworth has developed its ECMO service over the last few years and can assist patients with cardiac and respiratory failure. The hospital’s clinical expertise is offered to all adult patients with ARDS.

Useful articles

About heart bypass operations
About aortic valve replacement operations
About the Maze operation

Related websites

NHS choices
The Cardiothoracic Surgery Network
Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery

Back to cardiac services

 

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