Robotic-enhanced arterial revascularization for multivessel coronary artery disease.

Background: A tendency to reduce operative trauma is determining the evolution of cardiac surgical techniques lately. The introduction of robotic-enhanced endoscopic systems enables surgeons to perform arterial revascularization for multivessel disease without sternotomy.
Methods: From May 1999,17 (4 women, 13 men; median age 63+/-7.4 years) patients with multivessel coronary artery disease were treated surgically using arterial revascularization by means of bilateral internal mammary arteries. Both arteries were harvested endoscopically using the da Vinci system (Intuitive Surgical, Mountain View, CA). These vessels were anastomosed using the "Dresden technique."
Results: Survival was 100%. Mean duration of the operation was 255+/-40.4 minutes. Bilateral internal mammary artery harvesting took 88.5+/-15.9 minutes; cross-clamp time was 36+/-8.7 minutes. An average of 2.06 anastomoses were performed per operation. Postoperatively, patients remained in the intensive care unit for 21+/-13 hours. One patient (5.8%) needed reexploration due to bleeding.
Conclusions: The robotic surgical system introduces a new treatment of coronary artery disease to surgical practice, and enables arterial revascularization with distinctly reduced surgical trauma.