Heart surgery ‘safe’

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 1

Heart surgery ‘safe’

Open heart surgery is one of the safest and most effective operations that can be performed, according to a world authority on coronary care. Professor Desmond Julian. Professor Julian, who holds the chair of cardiology at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, is this year’s National Heart Foundation visiting professor. Open heart surgery was safer than gall bladder surgery, Professor Julian said in Christchurch yesterday. This was something not generally known by the layman. The number of openheart operations increasing in most places with .the notable exceptions of South Australia and the United States. Professor Julian . said three open’ heart units would be sufficient for New Zealand. Development depended on financial considerations, but it was generally accepted that 200 operations a year were needed to make an open heart unit viable. Professor Julian said that regular exercise helped avoid heart problems. Jogging helped some people but it did pose dangers and was not an absolute answer. “The evidence that jogging does you a lot of good is. questionable,” said Professor Julian.. “One of the sad things is that people used to regular , exercise in their teen-age years give it up in their 20s and 30s and ♦•UAr. Avna/'l- CAWiO CAft rvF

miracle when they start again in their middle’ age.” Smoking and high, blood pressure were still the two main causes of heart problems, Professor Julian said. The Government should support programmes that had already proved effective in helping people to stop smoking. “It is, after all, a Government responsibility to ensure the best use is made of health resources, and obviously smoking

cessation..‘programmes are a positive move.” Professor Julian said he doubted the effectiveness of anti-smokirig propaganda directed at young people. It was a mistake to try to frighten young people with the risk of death from smoking. A personal approach by a family doctor was the best way to get the nosmoking message across. This particularly' applied to older people who had smoked for some years, Professor Julian said.