How super microsurgery offers hope to patients living with lymphoedema

A Welsh hospital is carrying out ‘super-microsurgery’ to help people with a previously incurable condition.

Neath Port Talbot Hospital is offering patients the treatment for lymphoedema, a chronic condition that causes swelling in parts of the body.

The surgery trial has been successful enough that it’s already been extended by a year, to three years, and has won a Welsh innovation award.

Originally, just one surgeon was performing the surgery, but its success means that the service now has two surgeons.

Their work has attracted interest from other hospitals in the UK.

One person whose life has been changed by the surgery is Jan Williams, from Swansea, who developed lymphoedema after fighting breast cancer, and undergoing a double mastectomy, more than a decade ago.

Her arm became swollen and she says it affected her self confidence.

LVA is lymphatic venous anastomosis, the micro surgery performed at Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

It involves attaching dead lymphatics, the vessels that swell, to a working vein.

Without the operation, many people have to wear compression bandages for the rest of their lives, while others need medication to control infection.

The service is provided by Lymphoedema Network Wales in partnership with Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.

Originally, all the procedures were to be carried out by consultant plastic surgeon Amar Ghattaura, who was the only trained super-microsurgeon in Wales.

The full benefits of the surgery may not appear until three years afterwards, but the hospital say six patients have already stopped wearing compression bandages, and have been discharged from the lymphoedema service.

Watch the report from Mike Griffiths below: