
BENGALURU: Aster CMI Hospital surgeons have performed six Robotically Assisted Surgeries for mitral valve conditions over the past three months. When the mitral valve in the heart does not work properly, you experience fatigue and shortness of breath because the defective valve is allowing blood to flow backward into the left atrium (upper chamber of the heart).
Traditionally, an open heart surgery involves cutting the breast bone from the neck to the abdomen. Now, with the help of Robotic arms, surgeons at Aster CMI Hospital have successfully performed six mitral valve surgeries, with invasions as minimal as 2.5 cm to 3.5 cm.
“We doctors sit at a console, and with inputs from the camera, which gives us a complete view of the mitral valve in the patient’s body, guide the three Robotic Arms which are more dexterous than human wrists. They are able to rotate almost 360 degrees, making surgical manipulation easier and more precise,” said Dr Mahadev Dixit, Lead Consultant and Chief of Cardiac Sciences, Aster CMI Hospital.
Three of these patients are women. The youngest patient is 21 years old and the oldest is 32 years old. “One of them is getting married, and the scar from the surgery is minimal as compared to what a traditional open heart surgery will leave. Among the many benefits of Robotically Assisted Surgeries are smaller incisions with minimal scarring, less trauma and pain to the patient, shorter hospital stay (three to four days), lesser pain medications, less bleeding, decreased risk of infection, shorter and quicker recovery time, which enables the patient to get back to his/her routine faster.”The surgeries as of now is priced at the cost of the traditional open heart surgery. Patients were charged `3 lakh each, said a hospital employee.