A REVOLUTIONARY new heart treatment could significantly improve waiting lists for major surgery, it was claimed last night.

The device, launched yesterday, is being hailed as a wonder treatment for patients suffering from blocked arteries, and in some cases could be used as an alternative to open heart surgery.

Heart disease, the nation's single biggest killer, claims more than 14,000 lives in the region each year.

Stents - small metal devices which are inserted to keep the heart's arteries open - were introduced about ten years ago, but failed in 30 per cent of cases.

Many patients needed more minor surgery, or even major bypass surgery, after the failure of the stents.

But a new stent, featured on BBC's Tomorrow's World programme last night, releases a drug which keeps the artery open, with little or no failure rate.

Heart surgeons last night welcomed the launch of the Cypher stent, which was developed by Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company.

However, Dr Jim Hall, consultant cardiologist at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, expressed concern about the cost of the new treatment.

He said: "The results are spectacular and we should be thinking about using it. Patients have already been asking for it.

"One of the big problems is it's more expensive and, at the moment, we don't have the money to pay for it."

But Dr Hall said he hoped to access funding to see the treatment in use by the summer.

Eve Knight, of the British Cardiac Patients Association, said that looking only at the initial cost was "short-sighted".

She said: "This can improve patients' quality of life and, in the long-term, cut waiting lists."

Dr Nigel Buller, consultant cardiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, said some of the £40bn extra funds announced for the NHS in the latest Budget could help to fund the new treatment.

He said fewer patients would have to undergo major heart surgery, with several days in hospital, instead having a minor operation under local anaesthetic, with just one night in hospital.

"This could rule out a lot of patients having bypass surgery," he said.

Two years ago, The Northern Echo launched its A Chance to Live campaign, following the death of newspaper photographer Ian Weir. who died while waiting for a heart bypass operation.