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CUMC Surgeons Perform Nation's First Robotically-Assisted Coronary Artery Bypass

Dr. Michael Argenziano, Director of Robotic Cardiac Surgery, and Dr. Craig R. Smith, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, performed the nation's first robotically-assisted coronary artery bypass operation in January 2002. Coronary artery bypass surgery is one of the most common operations performed in the U.S., and this historic operation follows the successes of other robotically-assisted surgeries at Columbia University Medical Center. The patient was a 70-year-old retired businessman from New Jersey.

Until this operation, called TECAB (totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass), was performed, coronary artery bypass surgery required open-chest surgery, which involves an eight- to ten-inch incision made in the chest. Robotically-assisted surgery requires only three pencil-sized holes made between the ribs. Through these holes, two robotic arms and an endoscope (a tiny camera) gain access to the heart, making surgery possible without opening the chest.

Cardiac surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center have performed more than 40 robotic cardiac operations, including internal mammary artery harvests, mitral valve repairs, and the first robotically-assisted atrial septal defect repair in the United States. The surgical robot, Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci™ Surgical System, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a number of clinical trials in which NewYork-Presbyterian's New York Weill Cornell Medical Center also participates.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is the most commonly performed "open heart" operation. There are approximately 375,000 CABG surgeries performed in the United States each year. Studies show that patients who have minimally invasive operations such as TECAB leave the hospital one or two days earlier than patients recovering from conventional cardiac surgery. Dr. Argenziano, who is also the principal investigator for the first robotic coronary artery bypass surgery in the U.S., says, "Other advantages of minimally invasive surgery can include quicker patient recovery times, less pain, and dramatically less scarring than traditional open-heart operations."