A British invention, the Blood Flow Monitor, has been highlighted as reducing complications and speeding up recovery.  NICE – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – has indicated that if 50% of eligible patients were monitored using the device then it would save the NHS more than £400 million a year.  Currently it is only used in 3% of eligible patients.

The BBC’s Fergus Walsh interviewed Professor Monty Mythen, an anaesthetist from University College London, about the device.  The following is a transcript of the interview:

So Professor, can you explain how this works, very simply?

Here we have a pipe which has been specially modified.  We pass this into the patient.  This (one end) is the monitoring end.  We pass it in through the mouth and then feed it gently down into the gullet.  Our aim is for it to sit within the gullet, directly adjacent to the aorta, which is the main pipe which flows out from the heart.

And what does it pick up when its there?

It uses ultrasound to measure the speed of blood flowing out from the heart.

and you have got this actually operating here?

We have got it operating here at the moment. So what we have here is the trace. On one axis we have speed, across the bottom we have time. So the area under that curve is distance.

Blood Flow Monitor, Image credit: BBC

Very simply, how does that help you and the patient during the operation?

Well by being able to look directly at each beat of the heart and the amount of blood that is flowing out from it, we can adjust the amount of – particularly – fluid we give to the patient to make that the optimal size.

And does that then lead to less complications?

That results in improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and that avoids complications in the long run.

And does that actually save lives?

There is evidence to suggest that this also saves lives.

I can see there is a huge bank of monitors here already, why do you need something extra?

We need something because most of these monitors do not measure directly the flow from the heart.  So, the flow carries the oxygen and nutrients to the cell.  That is the main thing that we are interested in.  Traditionally what we have done is measure pressure as a way to try to gauge that.

Blood Pressure. img credit BBC

And any side effects for patients?

There are no risks associated with the use of this (blood flow monitor) that have been identified in the fifteen years that we have used it.  Occasionally, a minor sore throat, but nothing compare to the invasive monitors that we have used in the past.