Robotic CABG Technology Improving Slowly
Total endoscopic coronary artery bypass to multiple target sites will become a reality in the next few years,” according to Dr. Randall K. Wolf, of Ohio State University Medical Center, in Columbus.
Dr. Wolf, head of the first team in the United States to use robotic endoscopic technology for heart surgery, described the progress of thoracoscopic surgery over the last few years during the Eighth International Congress on Anti-Aging and Biomedical Technologies.
“Using a completely thoracoscopic technique, with three tiny incisions, our group has been successful in mobilizing the internal mammary artery and performing an arterial anastomosis between the internal mammary artery and the left anterior descending coronary artery,” Dr. Wolf reported. “Robotics has allowed for the performance of the anastomosis, while the target has been stabilized with standard heart-lung techniques on an arrested heart,” he explained.
New improved visualization systems have provided the surgeon with a three-dimensional view, and some of the newer systems are providing magnification up to 10x at a near field, Dr. Wolfe said. Remaining challenges “continue to be stabilization of the target site, a precise anastomosis, and the ability to perform this technique on more than one target source,” Dr. Wolfe writes in the abstract. However, given the technological advances, he expects total endoscopic CABG to be available in a few years.
Dr. Wolfe noted that his group has just received approval to use the robotic technology on a beating heart.
