Boston Scientific AF implantable provided to Leicester hospital

Service provider Althea is now providing Boston Scientific’s implantable Watchman FLX – a left atrial appendage closure device (LAAC), to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.

Althea supply the device, which reduces the risk of stroke in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, directly from Boston Scientific and track the procedural outcome via their bespoke inventory system. Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 1 million people in the UK. 

According to clinical data, more than 90% of stroke-causing blood clots from the heart are formed in the left atrial appendage in non-valvular AF patients. Watchman FLX is a permanent implant which closes the left atrial appendage in the heart to mitigate the stroke risk.

The Watchman FLX implant doesn’t require open-heart surgery and is typically performed under general anaesthetic. During this key-hole procedure, the physician makes a small incision in the upper leg and inserts a flexible tube (catheter) into a vein and guides the Watchman FLX device into the heart. Over time, heart tissue will grow over the implant. 

Olivier Lonbois, EMEA VP and GM for Cardiology and Structural Heart, Boston Scientific EMEA said: “The Watchman device has been implanted in more than 90,000 patients worldwide and we are pleased that this next-generation technology has been granted European regulatory approval so that we can offer it to patients and clinicians throughout Europe.”

Althea is a managed service and maintenance provider for the acute healthcare sector.

The company delivers a Managed Equipment Service (MES) to many UK and Ireland hospitals, which improves their technology whilst managing the day-to-day concerns of running a department. This includes maintenance and breakdowns and on-going equipment replacements throughout the term of the contract. As an integrated part of the longstanding managed service at Leicester’s Hospitals, Althea also provides a CMS and now manages all the clinical consumables and devices for nine interventional catheter laboratories across Leicester’s Hospitals and the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre.