Tygerberg Hospital keeps more hearts beating with pioneering service.

A pioneering life-and cost-saving radial angiography service in Tygerberg Hospital's cardiology department, the only one of its kind in Africa, is giving hundreds more patients unprecedented access to accurate diagnosis and treatment. Built around medical advances that allow both angiography and the often ensuing strategic placement of coronary stents to be done via the radial artery in the arm instead of the traditional and more risky femoral artery in the groin, the custom-built, six-seater radial angiography lounge has helped reduce procedure and recovery times. Every year this gives more than 200 extra referred patients access to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that could potentially save their lives – and saves the hospital an estimated ZAR1.5 million in what would otherwise have been overnight accommodation, food and linen costs. Private hospitals have already shown interest in emulating both the facility and the service, while the more proactive medical aids are fast sitting up and paying attention. Tygerberg Hospital cardiologist and chair of the pivotal philanthropic SUNHEART Founda tion Dr Alfonso Pecoraro says that the radial angiography suite looks like a dialysis unit but enables patients to undergo and recover from a diagnostic angiogram in 3 hours, and from a stent in 6. 'The suite is right alongside the theatre, so they literally walk in, get on the table to have the procedures done, and walk out. Patients can read or use their laptops to keep occupied if they have nothing else to do while we prep them before or monitor them afterwards, ' he said. The product of SUNHEART and private investment partner Medtronic, the suite should increase throughput of patients by approximately 15% (the cardiology unit performs about 1 700 procedures per annum). SUNHEART is the brainchild of Tygerberg's five cardiologists, Charles Kyriakakis, Pecoraro, Anton Doubell, Hellmuth Weich and Philip Herbst, whose ambition it is to change the cardiology landscape by creating access to 'advanced cardiac care for all' through innovative measures and procedures. Medtronic is a Minneapolis (USA)-based global leader in medical technology. General cardiology awareness and training is also being spread to several of the Western Cape's more rural district hospitals via cardiology satellite outreach facilities that enable staff to be trained in basic cardiology and proper diagnostic work-ups, resulting in a dramatic decline in inappropriate referrals to Tygerberg Hospital. Says Pecoraro: 'The net amount of patients we see has increased, but it's mitigated by the faster turnaround and …