A patient was recovering today after making medical history by having a world-first heart operation carried out by a robotic arm.

Patrick Flood, 63, yesterday thanked doctors at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital just minutes after the operation finished.

He was due home today.

Dr Andre Ng, a consultant cardiologist, used a robotic arm and sophisticated computer images of Mr Flood's heart to fix its irregular rhythm.

As reported in yesterday's Mercury, Mr Flood had suffered from atrial fibrillation for 12 years but the condition became steadily worse and he was in almost constant pain.

He has become the first patient to have the procedure – known as catheter ablation – carried out in this way.

Dr Ng controlled the robot arm in a room next to the theatre, using the 3D computer model as a guide.

The operation involved inserting thin wire catheters into the groin and up to the heart.

Electrodes on the catheters helped identify the location of the electrical activity causing the problem in Mr Flood's heart before the faulty tissue was vaporised.

Mr Flood, from Derby, who is married with three children and three grandchildren, was conscious throughout most of the procedure.

Dr Ng, who is also a senior lecturer at the University of Leicester, said being able to use a robotic arm combined with the specialist mapping system allows for much greater precision in the procedure.

That should lead to better finished results and could mean patients whose condition was previously inoperable can now be helped.

He said: "I think the procedure went extremely well.

"We achieved what we set out to do and by the end the patient had a normal heart rhythm and could feel the difference immediately.

"He was awake as soon as the procedure was finished."

Dr Ng believes that if the success of Mr Flood's procedure is repeated with other patients it will help many more suffering from atrial fibrillation.

He said: "It is a very complex condition and the results of catheter ablation are a little variable.

"The robotic arm and mapping combined make for a more defined procedure.

"Once safety and efficacy is established I think it will be quicker and we will be able to treat more patients."

Mr Flood was taken to the operating theatre – called a catheter lab – at 9am and the procedure was finished at about 2.30pm.

As soon as it was over he said: "Thank you, I am so grateful to everyone."

His wife, Donna, 49, said: "We have been told everything went well and Patrick's heart is back to normal.

"He said at times it was quite painful, when the catheter was going into the heart but he is absolutely overwhelmed.

"I don't think it has sunk in properly and he is very tired – he didn't sleep a wink on Monday night.

"I am going to make sure that he rests up when he gets home."