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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2003;126:623-624
© 2003 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Editorial

Robotic cardiac surgery: Quo vadis?

Francis Robicsek, MD, PhDa,*

a Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Heineman Laboratories for Cardiovascular Research, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, USA

Received for publication June 13, 2002; accepted for publication July 15, 2002.

* Address for reprints: Francis Robicsek, MD, PhD, Carolinas Medical Center, 1001 Blythe Blvd, Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28203, USA
tjohn@sanger-clinic.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom.—Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818

Just like other technologies, cardiac surgery also underwent important changes during the past decade: minimally invasive approach, endoscopic interventions, Heartport, off-pump coronary bypass (just to name a few). These changes were most significant because, contrary to those of the preceding years, they not only represented an expected linear progress but also uprooted some of our basic concepts we have learned, practiced, taught, and regarded as sacrosanct. Some of the first words we heard in the operating room as young apprentices were: "You must have adequate and wide exposure. Use your fingers as you use your eyes! Palpation is as important as is sight. To be able to do fine work, the heart has to be absolutely still." Although none of the above innovations proved these basic postulates wrong, they have shown that we indeed can "get away" (most of the time) with things we thought we could not live without. Although with these new techniques we have definitely lost some of the safety and even effectiveness of our procedures, we were still both ethically and clinically justified because we got something important in return: shorter operating time, less surgical trauma, elimination of cardiopulmonary bypass, better cosmetic appearance, . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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