John Phillipson is a founder member of a wide-awake club - one of two patients who last week became the first in Britain to undergo heart bypass surgery under local anaesthetic.

He tried a few jokes on the operating team while they conducted the pioneering 90-minute procedure and was reading and sitting up in a chair within a few hours of the operation.

Surgeons believe the technique, which uses an epidural injection rather like that administered to women in childbirth, could help thousands of patients by cutting the time they need to spend in hospital and reduce the fear of approaching the unknown, an inescapable part of undergoing a major operation.

It could also save the NHS millions of pounds, although it is difficult to estimate at present how the cost will compare with conventional treatment, which is around £16,000.

Mr Phillipson has been back at home since Saturday and said yesterday: "I feel very good, back to almost normal, though obviously a bit of discomfort in my chest. There is a bit of swelling where they made the incision, and I have to heal internally too."

The 72-year-old, who helped surgeons at Harefield hospital, west London, make history, was bullish about his experience, prompted by a suspected heart attack last January.

"I thought, 'Great. If I am awake all the time I shall know I am still alive'. They think that what had worried me most was going under an anaesthetic, going to sleep and not waking up."

Mr Phillipson, married with three grown-up daughters, found out he was going to remain awake shortly before the operation. The epidural was administered through the upper part of his back.

He confessed to feeling pain "when there was pressure on my left side" at one stage of the operation but he was given some more painkiller.

"They asked me to tell them some jokes, I thought of a clean one, a golfing one to start, although I muffed it a bit. They were not telling me in detail what they were up to. They were very busy. They had to concentrate on what they were doing but they seemed very pleased."

He spent just three days in hospital, one preparing for the operation last Thursday.

Mr Phillipson had realised something was wrong about eight months ago and went to the A&E department at Watford general hospital, Hertfordshire, near his home. Tests there and at Harefield revealed the problem.

Coronary artery bypass grafts involve using vessels from the legs or chests of patients to bypass blockages and restore blood flow to the heart. Such operations used to involve incisions through the breast bone and putting the patients on heart and lung machines while the operation was carried out.

But more operations, which can take between two and three hours, are being conducted using endoscopes which involve less invasive surgery. The Harefield team now uses a suction device which holds firm a very small area of the heart muscle while the rest of the organ and the lungs beat normally.

Mohamed Amrani, the consultant surgeon who led the surgical team, believes the stay-awake technique has only previously been used on a small scale in Germany and the US.

He said he was delighted with the epidural procedure and looks forward to offering it to more patients. "Our first patient, who was operated on in the morning, was sitting up in bed, eating and reading the newspaper by the afternoon," he said.