Minimally invasive surgery

Mitral valve prolapse and coronary artery disease are two common heart conditions that can lead to heart surgery when medication and lifestyle changes do not provide a solution. If you are a candidate for heart surgery, ask your doctor if there is a minimally invasive option.

Cardiac robotic surgery can be used to treat various heart diseases, including:

• Mitral valve disease — The mitral valve is a flap separating the upper and lower chambers on the heart’s left side. The valve’s job is to keep blood flowing in the right direction and prevent blood from flowing backwards between beats. Sometimes, the mitral valve doesn’t close properly or starts to leak. Some mitral valve disease is mild and causes no problems. In other cases, a damaged mitral valve can make it harder for the heart to pump blood. 

• Coronary artery disease — A condition in which the blood vessels that supply the heart become blocked with fatty plaque can no longer deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart.

There are many different types of procedures available, such as:

• Mitral valve (repair/replacement) surgery — Mitral valve repair and mitral valve replacement are types of surgery to fix or replace a leaky or stiff mitral valve in the heart. The mitral valve is between the left heart chambers (left atrium and left ventricle) through a few small cuts on the side of the chest.
• Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) — Designed to treat coronary artery disease, this procedure involves a surgeon bypassing he blocked artery by attaching or “grafting” a blood vessel harvested from somewhere else in the body onto the blocked coronary artery. Blood can then flow freely through the open grafted segment instead of the blocked segment. 

For more information about these procedures, you should speak to your doctor. 

Thoracic conditions requiring medical care include cancer found in any area of the chest, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), benign tumors, trauma-related injuries and hernias in the region.

In the case of cancer, or when lifestyle changes, medicine or other options do not ease the symptoms of other conditions, your doctor may suggest surgery.

Types of procedures that can be performed include:

• Lung surgery
• Segmentectomy and wedge resection
• Lobectomy

Robotic surgery can be used for more general procedures as well, including

• Gallbladder removal surgery (cholecystectomy)
• Laparoscopic cholecystectomy
• Laparoscopic appendectomy
• Colon resection
• Colostomy creation
• Ventral hernia repair
• Inguinal hernia repair 

If you need an orthopedic surgical procedure, our team can use robotic surgery to help. We provide:

• Total knee replacement
• Partial knee replacement
• Patella femoral replacement
• Total hip replacement
• Total shoulder replacement