A NORTH-East hospital has become the first in the world to fit wireless pacemakers the size of a grain of rice to heart failure patients.

Seriously-ill patients at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, were the first to benefit from the potentially lifesaving new technology, which could revolutionise treatment for heart attacks.

Surgeons and cardiologists conventionally treat the condition with a Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy (CRT) device, known as a biventricular pacemaker.

This sits below the collar bone and relies on wires that feed into the right chambers of the heart, which perform the vital function of pumping deoxygenated blood into the lungs.

A third wire is required to maintain a steady heartbeat by 'pacing' the left ventricle, where blood is pumped out through the aortic valve into the aortic arch and onward to the rest of the body.

It is thought up to 30 per cent of patients fail to respond to treatment with these pacemakers.

But the new type of wireless pacemaker, developed by EBR Systems Inc and known as WiSE Technology, is implanted directly into the innermost layer of tissue that lines the left chamber of the heart.

This can then perform the same job as a traditional CRT pacemaker - controlling abnormal heart rhythms using low-energy electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate - but without the need for wires and the risk of complications that come with them.

Simon James, James Cook consultant cardiologist, said: “Early indications show patients are responding well to this new type of treatment and we are confident we will be able to provide more information on the benefits to patients in the very near future.

“By eliminating the need for a left ventricular lead, the technology allows us to target the exact site where we pace the heart.

“It also allows us to fit the device exactly where an individual patient needs it, which could enable us to increase the number of patients who respond to this therapy, helping them to live a longer, more active life.”

During recent clinical trials of the device, patients whose conventional CRT pacemaker treatment had failed benefited from an 81 per cent improvement in their condition.

This led to the device being approved for use in hospitals - with James Cook Hospital being the first to take advantage of the new treatment on behalf of patients outside of a research study.

Around 900,000 people in England and Wales suffer heart failure.

Studies have demonstrated successful CRT therapy significantly improves symptoms and reduces hospitalisation - and saves lives.

It is thought the new device could improve CRT therapy success rates, improving a patient’s quality of life and helping them to live longer than they would if left untreated, or if their treatment using the conventional CRT pacemaker was unsuccessful.

Andrew Turley, one of two cardiologists involved in bringing the new technology to Teesside alongside Mr James and cardiac surgeon Andrew Owens, said: “This is an exciting and important addition to the treatment options available for our patients with heart failure.

“We are proud to have been able to introduce it on Teesside before any other hospital in the country - or indeed, the world.”