A 14-year-old girl from Warrington, Cheshire, has become the first person in the United Kingdom to receive a dissolvable implant designed to close a hole in her heart. The biodegradable device, called Memosorb, was implanted in June by surgeons at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool. It was used to treat an atrial septal defect (ASD), a hole in the wall separating the two upper chambers of the heart, roughly the size of a 10p coin.

Lillie Yale’s treatment represented a departure from the traditional use of permanent metal devices, which typically serve to close such defects but can carry limitations for active patients. In Lillie’s case, the metal implant would have restricted her ability to play rugby due to the risk of the device becoming dislodged from heavy impacts before the heart fully healed.

Memosorb is composed of biomedical polymers commonly used in dissolvable stitches. According to Dr. Salim Jivani, consultant paediatric cardiologist at Alder Hey, the device functions as a scaffold that encourages natural tissue growth around it before gradually breaking down and disappearing entirely. This differs from permanent metal implants, which are typically covered by tissue but remain inside the heart indefinitely.

Lillie was diagnosed with ASD after being born prematurely at 33 weeks. ASD affects approximately one to two in every 1,000 newborns. Since her procedure, her mother, Becci Nichols, has reported that Lillie is recovering well. She has been able to run 4.5 kilometers, visit a theme park, and return to playing rugby without restrictions.

The hospital obtained a special licence from the medicines regulator to use Memosorb in Lillie’s case, marking the first time this implant has been used on a patient with an ASD in the UK. Lillie expressed her satisfaction, saying she was happy to have undergone the procedure and excited to be the first in the country to benefit from this new technology.

This advancement highlights ongoing efforts in paediatric cardiology to develop treatments that combine effective medical intervention with improved quality of life for patients, especially those engaged in active lifestyles.