Doctors Perform First Robotic Heart Transplant In US Without Opening a Chest 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neuroscience News Science Magazine: Surgeons have performed the first fully robotic heart transplant in the U.S., using advanced robotic tools to avoid opening the chest. [...] Using a surgical robot, lead surgeon Dr. Kenneth Liao and his team made small, precise incisions, eliminating the need to open the chest and break the breast bone. Liao removed the diseased heart, and the new heart was implanted through preperitoneal space, avoiding chest incision.
"Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially in heart transplant patients who take immunosuppressants," said Liao, professor and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and circulatory support at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. "With the robotic approach, we preserve the integrity of the chest wall, which reduces the risk of infection and helps with early mobility, respiratory function and overall recovery."
In addition to less surgical trauma, the clinical benefits of robotic heart transplant surgery include avoiding excessive bleeding from cutting the bone and reducing the need for blood transfusions, which minimizes the risk of developing antibodies against the transplanted heart. Before the transplant surgery, the 45-year-old patient had been hospitalized with advanced heart failure since November 2024 and required multiple mechanical devices to support his heart function. He received a heart transplant in early March 2025 and after heart transplant surgery, he spent a month in the hospital before being discharged home, without complications.
"Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially in heart transplant patients who take immunosuppressants," said Liao, professor and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and circulatory support at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. "With the robotic approach, we preserve the integrity of the chest wall, which reduces the risk of infection and helps with early mobility, respiratory function and overall recovery."
In addition to less surgical trauma, the clinical benefits of robotic heart transplant surgery include avoiding excessive bleeding from cutting the bone and reducing the need for blood transfusions, which minimizes the risk of developing antibodies against the transplanted heart. Before the transplant surgery, the 45-year-old patient had been hospitalized with advanced heart failure since November 2024 and required multiple mechanical devices to support his heart function. He received a heart transplant in early March 2025 and after heart transplant surgery, he spent a month in the hospital before being discharged home, without complications.
ok (Score:2)
Now do it without stopping either of them....
Cool tech, but (Score:2)
It's impressive how much a badly conceived AI image in a medical story can really undermine the story's impact.
The actual robot is out there, photos exist. The fact they chose this route is... sad...? I hope they were just lazy and not so strung out they couldn't just get an actual photo of the team from one of their press releases...
Re: (Score:3)
https://blogs.bcm.edu/2025/02/... [bcm.edu]
I had no idea how huge these things are.
https://aimis.com/assets/image... [aimis.com]
They must have some really fancy attachments to get the dexterity (such as angle of approach) they would need. I can't imagine trying to change an oil filter shoved up behind a radiator with this...
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That's the one.
The trick is that each arm folds on itself multiple times in a resting position, as well as two extra rotation axes. It's got a ridiculous amount of reach...
I also didn't realise how big they were tbh. The control system looks like something from a japanese arcade... can't complain about it getting the job done though.
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Yep, AI slop at work. I saw the picture and stopped reading.
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Why would you stop reading when you see a picture? This isn't a comic book. The story actually has interesting information.
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Because if someone has resorted to LLM-generated slop for the illustration (and the organisation publishing being fine with at least that kind of slop), there is some elevated risk the text will also be slop?
Overly Literal Comment (Score:2)
I didn't know robots had hearts. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive, but I think it would be more amazing if it was done on a human.
Went in through the abs, not the upper chest (Score:5, Informative)
They insisted on using medical jargon which every doctor would understand, but your average Joe does not. The 'preperitoneal space' they mentioned basically means they went in lower, rather than breaking the ribs open.
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That's a lot of words for: "you can google it"
Why should you need to? Editors exist to summarise stories in a way the target audience understands. Do you always do other people's job for them? If so can you be here at 9? I really need my house cleaned.
the preperitoneal space (Score:2)
"accessing the heart through the preperitoneal space"
This seems extremely complicated and difficult. Apparently they come in under the ribcage which seems like very limited access to the heart. The robot cuts out "the diseased heart", which surely must require hooking the arteries up to a temporary external blood pump in order to keep the patient alive?
And they pull that heart out through the incisions under the chest, stuff a new heart back up in there, and stitch it all back together.
Him, what about healing the original heart (Score:2)
Did one ever come to the idea to heal a heart outside of the body?
Or did they, and it was to difficult?
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This technique does have the potential for attaching a mechanical heart that can be used to reduce the strain on the patient's own heart, this can allow the heart to rest and lead to a partial recovery. In about 40% of cases the mechanical heart can later be removed and the patient's own heart can continue to function adequately.
The problem is that when a heart is damaged, scar tissue has
Why do robots (Score:2)