PEOPLE with diseased hearts are benefiting from an innovative operation using powerful laser beams to cut channels in the heart and improve blood flow.
Five men and three women, aged from 57 to 70 and diagnosed with heart disorders, have received transmyocardial laser revascularisation at Grantham Hospital in the past eight months.
The latest patient - a 60-year-old man who suffered chest pains for four years - received the laser treatment yesterday and is expected to go home in 10 days.
Consultant Dr David Cheung Lik-ching said Grantham had become the first centre in Southeast Asia to perform the surgery.
The laser technique was safe even for high-risk patients, he said.
It creates channels in the heart wall, boosting blood supply to heart muscles which have become starved by blockages.
'Blood will be able to flow directly from the left ventricular cavity of the heart into the heart muscles through the channels,' said Dr Cheung, senior lecturer of Hong Kong University's Department of Surgery.