- CHICAGO, Ill. (UPI) -- Heart
surgeons using computer-controlled tiny robot arms with metallic "hands"
that hold miniaturized instruments have performed successful open heart
surgery without cutting open the chest, they reported Tuesday.
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- The surgeons used the robotic technique to repair a congenital
heart defect called atrial septal defect, a repair that traditionally requires
an incision down the whole length of the chest and the separation of the
ribs -- a procedure they call "cracking the chest."
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- Using the robot, the team performed the same repair through
four pencil-sized incisions in the chest, said Dr. Michael Argenziano,
a heart surgeon at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.
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- "I say this is open-heart surgery -- because you
can repair the heart without opening it up -- inside a closed chest,"
Argenziano said.
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- The surgeons unveiled the new technique at the American
Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2002.
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- Dr. David Faxon, chief of cardiology at the University
of Chicago and immediate past president of the American Heart Association,
said traditional surgery is "very painful for patients and anything
that can reduce that pain is welcome. This is really state-of-the-art surgery."
Faxon was not involved in the robot surgery research.
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- The robot technique will be very useful for repairs of
birth defects and procedures such as bypass surgery, "but of course
we can't do heart transplants this way," Faxon said.
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- The robot is called the da Vinci Surgical System, and
it already is approved for a heart valve procedure called mitral valve
repair, as well as for prostate surgery and gastric bypass, Argenziano
said.
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- Dr. Mehmet Oz, director of the Heart Institute at the
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, who also is involved
in the robot surgery research, said 15 patients ages 15 to 68 underwent
robotic repair of atrial septal defect. The procedure was completely successful
in 14 patients, he said, although one patient required additional surgery
five days later.
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- Argenziano said when traditional surgical approaches
are used, "patients usually are hospitalized for seven days (but these)
went home three days after surgery and were able to return to normal activity
in six-to-10 days."
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- The robot actually has three arms: two hold and manipulate
tiny surgical instruments while another holds a camera that transmits a
three-dimensional view to the computer screen. The surgeon uses a joy-stick-like
control to manipulate all three arms. "If you want to move right you
move your control to the right and computer translates that action to computer
hand," said Argenziano.
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- Surgeons at other university centers are experimenting
with robot surgery, Argenziano said, adding in the United States there
already have been 108 mitral valves surgeries and 23 atrial septal defect
repairs.
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- Surgeons also are testing the robots in single-vessel
bypass surgeries. Argenziano said about 8 to 10 percent of the 350,000
bypass surgeries done in the United States each year are single-vessel
procedures. He said 20 single-vessel bypass surgeries have been done by
American surgeons using the robots while German surgeons have performed
around 300 bypass surgeries using the same robot technology.
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- The robot costs about $1 million and another $100,000
a year for maintenance, Oz said, adding that about 100 U.S. hospitals have
purchased the robots.
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- Copyright © 2002 United Press International. All
rights reserved.
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