Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become one of the first NHS Trusts in the UK to use a new cutting-edge therapy that can treat atrial fibrillation without the need for a general anaesthetic.
The new Volt pulsed field ablation (PFA) procedure works by delivering short bursts of ultra-fast high-energy electrical pulses to malfunctioning heart cells.
Patients undergoing the procedure are the first to be able to have pulsed field cardiac ablation whilst conscious or under light sedation, allowing for faster and quicker recovery.
Real-time 3D heart mapping and a balloon-in-basket catheter device, which reaches the heart via a small incision at the top of the leg, allows doctors to maximise energy to the heart whilst also minimising the risk of damage to surrounding areas.
Novel heart treatment
Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the UK, affecting around 1.5 million people. As well as causing symptoms such as fatigue and dizziness, the progressive condition can put people at higher risk of stroke, heart failure and other cardiovascular complications. Initial treatments involve the use of medications and blood thinners. However, when these fail many patients rely on minimally invasive cardiac ablation to prevent irregular heart rhythms - a procedure that, up until now, has typically required a general anaesthetic.
Steven Holmes, 54, from Monk Bretton in Barnsley, was the first patient at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - and one of the first in the UK - to undergo the pioneering procedure.
He said he "didn't have a clue" what atrial fibrillation was when he was first diagnosed in 2021: "The first time it happened I was sat in the kitchen working on my laptop and my heart started racing. I could literally see my heart moving under my t-shirt. My wife took me to A&E, and the ECG showed my heart was at abnormally high 186 beats per minute."
Since then, the condition has continued to affect his life, causing breathlessness, brain fog and fatigue - and despite his medications it was starting to get worse:
"I get these flutters four or five times a year, and there are periods when it just sets off and it can go on for 45 minutes. I think the most I had it for was 13 hours. I do a lot of travelling with my job as head of recruitment at Sheffield United, and there were moments when it set off and I would have to turn the car around or leave the game at half-time and go home. I had my meds, but it was starting to get to the point where I was having a couple of episodes in the space of a few months and the longer you've got it the more dangerous it can become."
NHS 'couldn't do enough for me'
Steven said he'd never heard of atrial fibriliation - but its symptoms were getting progressively worse
Steven's consultant told him there was a new procedure which he might be able to benefit from, if it was rolled out in time. Just a week after having the procedure in February Steven was able to go back to work and says he can already see the benefits:
"Everything has been very calm since. The staff were fantastic. They couldn't do enough for me."
Consultant Cardiologist Dr Nicholas Kelland at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, explained:
"We are proud to be among the first in the UK to offer this revolutionary technique to our patients. This is the first treatment that enables this type of procedure to be done without a general anaesthetic, with the ablation itself taking just 30 minutes. Not only is this good for patients, allowing for faster recovery, better outcomes and same-day discharge, but it is good for the wider NHS as this helps us to free up valuable anaesthesia and surgical resource, reducing waiting lists and enabling even more people to access vital treatments and care."
Sheffield is one of 15 NHS Trusts in the UK to become an early adopter of the new VoltTM PFA system, provided by global healthcare company Abbott.
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