Robotically Assisted Heart Surgery - Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: New approaches to minimally invasive heart surgery
What is coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery?
For more information about coronary artery disease treatments:
CABG is a heart surgery procedure in which one or more blocked coronary arteries are bypassed by a blood vessel graft to restore normal blood flow to the heart. These grafts usually come from the patient’s own arteries and veins located in the chest (thoracic), leg (saphenous) or arm (radial). The graft goes around the blocked artery (or arteries) to create new pathways for oxygen-rich blood to flow to the heart.
The goals of the procedure are to:
- Relieve symptoms of coronary artery disease (including angina)
- Enable the patient to resume a normal lifestyle, and
- Lower the risk of a heart attack or other heart problems
Robotically-Assisted Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: smaller incision
Traditional, open-chest surgeries, such as mitral and tricuspid valve surgery, and bypass surgery involve: placing the patient on the heart-lung bypass machine to circulate oxygenated blood during surgery; creating a 6- to 8-inch incision through the sternum; spreading the ribs to view the heart and stopping the heart in order to stabilize the blood vessels.
Conventional minimally invasive surgery decreases the size of the incision to about 3 to 4 inches. Depending on the technique, the surgeon may choose to perform surgery on a “beating heart,” while the patient is not placed on the heart-lung bypass machine (this is called “off-pump” surgery).
Traditional open heart surgery incision
Robotically assisted surgery incision
The minimally-invasive robotically-assisted technique uses even smaller incisions – less than 2 inches. The surgeon’s hands control the movement and placement of the endoscopic instruments to open the pericardium (thin sac that surrounds the heart) and to perform the procedure.
Robot-assisted surgery is used in combination with traditional minimally invasive surgery to perform the bypass surgery through a much smaller incision. The robotic arms are used to open the pericardium (sac that surrounds the heart) and to harvest the mammary artery (in the chest wall) through a very small incision. Then, the surgeon uses the mammary artery to bypass a blocked heart artery through a minimally invasive incision. In most cases, the sternum or breastbone does not need to be opened and the ribs do not need to be spread to perform the procedure.
What are the benefits of robotically-assisted surgery?
Compared with traditional surgery, the benefits of robotically-assisted surgery include:
- Smaller incisions with minimal scarring
- Less trauma to the patient, including less pain
- Shorter hospital stay (usually 3 to 4 days)
- Decreased use of pain medications
- Less bleeding
- Decreased risk of infection
- Shorter recovery and quicker return to daily and professional activities: The patient can resume normal activities and work as soon as he or she feels up to it; there are no specific activity restrictions after robotically-assisted surgery
Click here to learn more how robotically assisted heart surgery works.
If you would like to find out if you are a candidate for robot assisted bypass surgery or learn more about minimally invasive heart surgery, click here to contact us or call the Heart and Vascular Institute Resource & Information Nurse at 216/445-9288 or toll-free at 866/289-6911,. We would be happy to help you.
Surgeons who perform robotically-assisted heart surgery
Robot assisted surgery is performed by specially trained cardiovascular surgeons. Cleveland Clinic Heart Surgeons who perform robotic assisted surgery include:
Some of these surgeons perform only specific types of robotically assisted heart surgery. We would be happy to help you find the right surgeon to treat your medical condition.
Robotically assisted heart surgeries:
Learn more how robotically assisted heart surgery works.
For more information:
Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Images used with permission by ©Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
