title: Robotic cardiac surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiac surgery, traditionally conducted via median sternotomy, has been recently forwarded by progressively advanced technology facilitating sternal-sparing minimally invasive, access to the heart. Robotic systems, comprised of miniaturized surgical instruments mounted on long thin shafts with multiple degrees of range of motion coupled with a dual camera endoscope providing true three-dimentional high-magnification visualization have greatly propelled this field.
  
  
  METHODS
  The robotic system and the literature base pertaining to robotic cardiac surgery is reviewed in depth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Robotic cardiac surgical procedures have been performed to repair and replace the mitral valve, bypass coronary arteries, close atrial septal defects, implant left ventricular pacing leads, and resect intracardiac tumors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As minimally invasive and robotic surgical technology advances, so proceeds the spectrum of potential applications for robotic cardiac surgery.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. wooy@uphs.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Y Joseph
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Woo
mesh_terms: D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D004867:Equipment Design; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends