Original version

BBC World Service News Internet

People Fixing The World

Podcasts

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

A weekly programme looking at common challenges around the world and the creative ways people are trying to tackle them.

Presenter Myra Anubi speaks to reporters, experts and innovators to investigate how effective different solutions are, share their successes and inspire listeners with what is possible.

No Master Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC Afghan Radio

People Fixing The World: Shockwaves for the heart

Discussion & Talk

News

Shockwaves for the heart

19/09/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - People Fixing The World, Shockwaves for the heart

An Austrian surgeon has a radical new treatment for heart disease

An Austrian surgeon has a radical new treatment for heart disease.

Heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases are the biggest killer in the world, causing 18 million deaths globally every year. 

Cardiologists and heart surgeons try to manage heart disease with stents, surgery and drugs, but the organ itself does not heal. Finding a way to regenerate heart tissue has become a holy grail for medicine.
 
Now there is new hope from a strange and pioneering technique from Austria. Doctors there believe that applying shockwaves directly to the heart after surgery dramatically improves patient outcomes. 

The shockwaves – which are sonic pressure waves, rather than electric shocks – lead to new growth of blood vessels and trick the body’s immune system into action. 

The BBC’s global health correspondent Naomi Grimley travels to Innsbruck to see the treatment in action.

Presenter: Myra Anubi
Producer: William Kremer
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines and Gareth Jones
Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Heart surgery

Accessibility links

Programme Index

People Fixing The World

Shockwaves for the heart

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service News Internet

About BBC World Service