Robotically Assisted Heart Surgery: Mitral Valve Surgery: New approaches to minimally invasive heart surgery
For more information about mitral valve disease treatments:
Robotically assisted mitral valve surgery is a type of minimally invasive heart surgery performed by a cardiac surgeon, on the mitral valve with an endoscopic, closed chest approach.
Your mitral valve
There are four valves within your heart. They are the mitral, tricuspid, aortic and pulmonic valves. The mitral valve lies between the left atrium (upper heart chamber) and the left ventricle (lower heart chamber). Click here to learn more about the heart valves.
What is valve disease?
Valve disease occurs when your heart's valves do not work correctly. This can be caused by valve stenosis (stiff, fused, inflexible leaflets, limiting flow of blood) or valve regurgitation (leaky heart valve, occurs when the leaflets do not close completely). Click here to learn more about valve disease.
Mitral valve surgery
When the mitral valve does not function properly, the mitral valve must be repaired or replaced. At the Cleveland Clinic, mitral valve repair is the procedure of choice for most patients with mitral valve disease. If you require mitral valve surgery - both repair or replacement - or if you require a reoperation - you may be a candidate for robotically assisted mitral valve surgery
Robotically-Assisted Valve Surgery: smaller incision
Traditional, open-chest surgeries, such as mitral and tricuspid valve surgery, and bypass surgery involve: placing the patient on the heart-lung bypass machine to circulate oxygenated blood during surgery; creating a 6- to 8-inch incision through the sternum; spreading the ribs to view the heart and stopping the heart in order to stabilize the blood vessels.
Conventional minimally invasive surgery decreases the size of the incision to about 3 to 4 inches. Depending on the technique, the surgeon may choose to perform surgery on a “beating heart,” while the patient is not placed on the heart-lung bypass machine (this is called “off-pump” surgery).
Traditional open heart surgery incision
Robotically assisted surgery incision
The minimally-invasive robotically-assisted technique uses even smaller incisions – less than 2 inches. The surgeon’s hands control the movement and placement of the endoscopic instruments to open the pericardium (thin sac that surrounds the heart) and to perform the procedure. In most cases, the sternum or breastbone does not need to be opened and the ribs do not need to be spread to perform the procedure.
What are the benefits of robotically-assisted surgery?
Compared with traditional surgery, the benefits of robotically-assisted surgery include:
- Smaller incisions with minimal scarring
- Less trauma to the patient, including less pain
- Shorter hospital stay (usually 3 to 4 days)
- Decreased use of pain medications
- Less bleeding
- Decreased risk of infection
- Shorter recovery and quicker return to daily and professional activities: The patient can resume normal activities and work as soon as he or she feels up to it; there are no specific activity restrictions after robotically-assisted surgery
Click here to learn more how robotically assisted heart surgery works.
During mitral valve surgery, the surgeon is able to get an undistorted 3-D view of the mitral valve, leaflets and subvalvular structures with use of a high powered camera. and a lateral thoracic approach. The robotic surgical system is used to control instruments, which are attached to thin, robotic arms. The surgeon's hands control the movement and placement of the instruments. The robotic “arm and wrist” movements mimic those of the surgeon's hand to enable the surgeon to follow the same steps as a traditional mitral valve surgery - including a variety of repair techniques, mitral valve replacement, and redo mitral valve surgery.
If you would like to find out if you are a candidate for robot assisted mitral valve surgery or learn more about minimally invasive heart surgery, click here to contact us or call the Heart and Vascular Institute Resource & Information Nurse at 216/445-9288 or toll-free at 866/289-6911. We would be happy to help you.
Surgeons who perform robotically-assisted heart surgery
Robot assisted surgery is performed by specially trained cardiovascular surgeons. Cleveland Clinic Heart Surgeons who perform robotic assisted surgery include:
Some of these surgeons perform only specific types of robotically assisted heart surgery. We would be happy to help you find the right surgeon to treat your medical condition.
Robotically assisted heart surgeries:
Learn more how robotically assisted heart surgery works.
For more information:
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Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Images used with permission by © Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
