Hospital first in heart treatment
Heart specialist Dr Iain Simpson, right, has become the first surgeon in Europe to implant a new flexible device to open a patient's blocked artery after a heart attack.
The new advanced design, known as the Resolute Integrity Stent System, is more flexible than other types and was used on a patient at Southampton General Hospital.
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Hide AdIt can be inserted to reach narrow or difficult blood vessels and its flexibility means it has an improved ability to mould to the shape of an artery rather than remain rigid.
Stents are used to create permanent blood flow in previously blocked arteries of coronary heart disease or heart attack patients.
Immediate angioplasty with a stent, known as primary percutaneous coronary intervention (primary PCI), is now recognised as the best treatment for heart attack patients.