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Simple
Surgical Technique Reduces Hospital Stays and Could Save NHS Billions
LONDON
, July 19/PRNewswire/ --
Report by Surgeons and Anaesthetists Presented in House of Commons
on Wednesday,
July 20 2005
Thousands of lives and billions of pounds could by saved by the National
Health
Service through a simple device that measures blood flow during
surgery.
It will cut by up to three days the time patients spend in hospital
after
surgery,
freeing up wards and increasing by thousands the number of patients
surgeons
can treat.
The CardioQ system was unveiled to MPs in the House of Commons by a team
of surgeons and anaesthetists claimed that it
'speeds
recovery, reduces length of stay, leads to significantly fewer
post-operative
complications and results in considerable financial savings'.
They
will explained that one of the major causes of slow post-operative
recovery
is reduced circulating blood volume - hypovolaemia. This leads to
insufficient oxygen being delivered to the organs and can cause medical
complications
including peripheral and major organ failure and even death.
Hypovolaemia is suffered by virtually every patient undergoing surgery.
It
is similar to dehydration due to the combined effects of pre-operative
starvation,
the impact of anaesthetic gases and the trauma of surgery.
The CardioQ system uses a soft disposable ultra-sound probe that is
inserted
into the patient's oesophagus via the mouth during surgery and
records
the amount of blood being pumped around the body - allowing the
anaesthetist
to control the administration of fluids exactly.
Professor Monty Mythen, Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care,
University
College
London
said:
"The costs of introducing the equipment are minimal. The benefits
for
patients
and the NHS are enormous.
Of
the 20,000 patients who die each year following surgery, a
significant
proportion could be saved using this simple surgical technique.
We
could actually treat an additional 200,000 patients with the capacity
freed
up by patients leaving hospital fitter and faster."
(10/9/05)
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