Robotic computer-assisted telemanipulation enhances coronary artery bypass

Objectives: Totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting depends grea tly on perfecting the anastomosis, We tested a new computer-assisted telema nipulation robot (Intuitive Surgical Inc, Mountain View, Calif) in performi ng endoscopic coronary bypass. Methods: On-bench anastomoses of the porcine arterial graft to the left anterior descending coronary artery were perfor med with both direct visualization and conventional surgical instruments (g roup I), endoscopic 3-dimensional visualization and curl ent endoscopic sur gical instruments (group II), direct visualization and endoscopic instrumen ts (group III), 3-dimensional endoscopic visualization and conventional sur gical instruments (group IV), and telemanipulation robotic with 3-dimension al endoscopic visualization (group V), Anastomoses (n = 6 in each group) we re assessed for time (minutes), quality (good = 3, fair = 2, poor = 1), tec hnical difficulty (easy-difficult: 1-4), and patency (100% = 1, >50% = 2, < 50% = 3), Results: Anastomotic time was significantly longer in groups II a nd III than in groups IV and V (P less than or equal to.02), Patency was co mparable in all groups. Conclusion: Telemanipulation technology may enhance the performance of totally endoscopic coronary artery anastomosis, The fac ility and time of an Intuitive telemanipulation anastomosis is comparable w ith that of a conventional anastomosis created under direct vision.