title: Robotics in cardiac surgery: past, present, and future.
abstract: Robotic cardiac operations evolved from minimally invasive operations and offer similar theoretical benefits, including less pain, shorter length of stay, improved cosmesis, and quicker return to preoperative level of functional activity. The additional benefits offered by robotic surgical systems include improved dexterity and degrees of freedom, tremor-free movements, ambidexterity, and the avoidance of the fulcrum effect that is intrinsic when using long-shaft endoscopic instruments. Also, optics and operative visualization are vastly improved compared with direct vision and traditional videoscopes. Robotic systems have been utilized successfully to perform complex mitral valve repairs, coronary revascularization, atrial fibrillation ablation, intracardiac tumor resections, atrial septal defect closures, and left ventricular lead implantation. The history and evolution of these procedures, as well as the present status and future directions of robotic cardiac surgery, are presented in this review.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, North Carolina, USA;
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.forename: L Wiley
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Nifong
authors.forename: W Randolph
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Chitwood
keywords: Cardiac surgery; minimally invasive; robotics; surgical procedures; thoracic surgery
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