Royal Brompton Hospital

Introduction to Royal Brompton Hospital

Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals form one of the largest specialist heart and lung centers in the United Kingdom and Europe. They have been recognized by Newsweek as among the world’s leading centers for cardiology and pulmonology. Royal Brompton Hospital has been ranked among the world’s top 10 cardiology centers, while Harefield Hospital is highly regarded for its expertise in heart and lung care.

Royal Brompton Hospital Campus

Royal Brompton Hospital has more than 2,200 healthcare professionals, five dedicated operating rooms, one hybrid operating room, four catheterization laboratories, and 312 beds.

The hospital has a center for the treatment and management of cystic fibrosis and receives patients from across the country with asthma and chronic lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD.

Royal Brompton Hospital is a pioneer in adult congenital heart disease care in Europe and has the largest adult congenital heart disease team in the United Kingdom.

The hospital provides specialist adult and pediatric intensive care services. It has seven specialist adult intensive care consultants and is home to one of the largest academic research programs in intensive care medicine in the country. It is also one of the few hospitals in the United Kingdom with a professor of intensive care medicine.

Harefield Hospital Campus

Harefield Hospital has more than 1,300 staff members, five operating rooms, four catheterization laboratories, and 168 beds. These include beds for cardiac and thoracic surgery, cardiac disease, adult intensive care, and transplantation.

It is one of the most experienced heart and lung transplant centers and participated in the early collaborative development of the “artificial heart,” also known as the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD.

The hospital has a dedicated heart attack treatment center that receives patients with acute heart attacks from northwest outer London. It also has a specialist catheterization laboratory for primary angioplasty. The time from arrival on site to treatment is 27 minutes.

As one of the United Kingdom’s largest specialist hospitals for heart and lung diseases, Royal Brompton Hospital has earned a worldwide reputation thanks in part to the outstanding work of Sir Magdi Yacoub. Sir Magdi Yacoub is a world-renowned surgeon who pioneered heart transplantation in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Yacoub was a friend and confidant of Princess Diana. He once privately invited Princess Diana to observe his work at the hospital. Soon afterward, photos appeared on television and online showing Princess Diana wearing a surgical mask and heavy makeup. These images became one of her iconic public images, and Yacoub also became widely known.

Royal Brompton Hospital’s strong reputation attracts medical professionals and patients from around the world. In addition, as a medical research center, Royal Brompton Hospital publishes 500 to 600 articles in scientific journals each year. In 2006, its 10 major research programs received high evaluations.

Each year, surgeons at Royal Brompton Hospital perform not only 2,400 coronary angioplasty procedures, in which a balloon catheter is inserted through an incision in the groin and advanced to the heart to widen blocked arteries, but also 1,200 coronary artery bypass surgeries. The hospital also provides treatment for 2,000 patients with respiratory failure.

Summary of Achievements at Royal Brompton Hospital

In the field of cardiology and cardiac surgery, the center has achieved many historic milestones, including:

* In 1947, performing the world’s first direct pulmonary valvotomy for a young patient with tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart disease * In 1980, performing the first heart transplant and coronary angioplasty in the United Kingdom * In 1983, performing the world’s first combined heart-lung transplant * In 1988, performing the first coronary stent implantation in the United Kingdom * Performing the first robot-assisted cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom * Successfully performing some of the first “artificial heart” implantations in Europe * Pioneering work in the field of atrial fibrillation ablation