Hospital Clínic de Barcelona is the only center in Spain that has begun to perform robotic cardiovascular surgeries with the Da Vinci robot. Doctors Daniel Pereda and Elena Sandoval, from the Clínic Cardiovascular Institute, have so far performed 14 interventions with this technique, all of them successful. Most of these interventions were mitral valve repair surgeries. However, this type of intervention offers numerous benefits in the treatment of multiple cardiac pathologies, as stated by Dr. Daniel Pereda, surgeon of the Clinic and barnaclínic+.
ROBOTIC CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY FOR THE TREATMENT OF MITRAL INSUFFICIENCY
Robotic cardiovascular surgeries performed at Hospital Clínic for the treatment of mitral insufficiency take between 4 and 5 hours and allow better recovery and fewer postoperative complications than conventional surgeries. It is a minimally invasive technique in which the heart is accessed through small incisions between the ribs (about 8 millimeters) and without the need to open the sternum (as it does in conventional surgery). These types of benefits are also obtained with the conventional Port-Access surgery. However, the assistance of the Da Vinci robot provides greater precision, even less invasiveness, better aesthetic and better recovery results.
Mitral insufficiency is a pathology characterized by the poor closure of the mitral valve which, if not treated, can cause heart failure and arrhythmias. Mitral insufficiency can be treated by replacing or repairing the heart valve. Mitral valve repair surgeries avoid having to replace the valve with prosthesis. As Dr. Daniel Pereda affirms: “this surgery allows the patient’s valve to be preserved and its function restored, thus avoiding having to replace it with prosthesis, with all the possible complications that this may entail”. The Hospital Clínic Group is an Accredited National Reference Center (CSUR) for complex mitral valve surgical repairs. The Clínic Cardiovascular Institute performs over 100 surgeries of this type every year.
Dr. Daniel Pereda – Cardiovascular surgeon
«Mitral valve repair surgery allows the patient’s valve to be preserved and its function restored, thus avoiding having to replace it with prosthesis, with all the possible complications that this entails»
«Robotic cardiovascular surgery allows us to perform the intervention in a much less aggressive form. The Da Vinci robot allows us to have greater mobility with minimal invasiveness»
Dr. Daniel Pereda
WHICH HEART PATHOLOGIES CAN BE TREATED WITH ROBOTIC CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY?
These first robot-assisted mitral valve repair surgeries open the gates to the treatment of other cardiac pathologies, some of them already available today. Currently, “not all cardiac interventions can be done using robotic technology,” Dr. Daniel Pereda affirms. However, this technology is available for various cardiac pathologies such as: septal defects of the tricuspid valve, congenital heart defects, some types of cardiac tumors (especially benign) and arrhythmias, specifically atrial fibrillation (the most common).
THE FUTURE OF ROBOTIC SURGERY IN CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY
Hospital Clínic and barnaclínic+ consolidate their commitment to robotic surgery and add Cardiovascular Surgery to a list that already featured Urology, Digestive Surgery and Gynaecology.
As Dr. Pereda states, “with increasingly better technology and better diagnosis”, more and more patients will be able to benefit from robotic surgeries. These types of interventions offer greater benefits the sooner patients are diagnosed. With reference to the field of Cardiac Surgery in particular, Dr. Pereda states that the development of technology “will allow us to be able to offer robotic surgery treatments for pathologies that we cannot treat at the moment, such as pathologies of the aortic valve”.
