HEART surgery patients in the region are the first in the world to benefit from a medical invention.

Seven heart surgery patients at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, have been connected to a machine that recycles their blood.

The development has the potential to revolutionise the way in which open heart surgery patients are cared for after operations.

Until now, blood recycling can only take place in operating theatres.

But the new lightweight device developed by US company Haemonetics can be wheeled around with the patient and used to collect, recycle and replace their blood until they stop bleeding.

The machine should mean that heart surgery patients will need fewer units of donated blood.

Heart surgeon Andrew Owens, the clinical director of cardiothoracic surgery at the 1,000-bed hospital, said: "Haemonetics came to us because we have a history of innovation at this hospital.

"We are all really chuffed that we have beaten the Americans, the Germans and the Italians to this world-first."

Alec Bobroff, the director of product marketing at the Boston company, said they had chosen the hospital to evaluate the product because it was "a progressive hospital and a centre of excellence".

The hospital was chosen to try the product ahead of US hospitals partly because of the long time taken by the US regulatory authorities to approve new medical equipment.

Mr Bobroff said blood recycling devices were invented by Haemonetics 30 years ago and were widely used in orthopaedic and transplantation surgery. But he said the unique thing about the new device was its portability.

Mr Owens said the device, which is about the size of a lightweight vacuum cleaner, was more useful than the "quite cumbersome" standard model.