Totally Endoscopic Robotically Enhanced Coronary Artery Bypass on the Beating Heart

Abstract

The introduction of telemanipulation systems has increased surgical dexterity and accuracy, providing seven degrees of freedom of motion, tremor filtration and three-dimensional visualization.1 With the aid of a new-generation articulated coronary stabilizer, cardiac surgeons are now able to perform completely endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting without thoracotomy.2 At St Mary's Hospital we have used the Da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Mountainview, CA). The surgeon works at a master unit where his/her hands movements are accurately reproduced by the slave instruments inside the chest. We report the first two UK cases.