TECAB - Totally Endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass

http://www.or-live.com/umm/2466/ Step inside the operating room at the University of Maryland Heart Center for the premiere of a webcast featuring a totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass operation using the da Vinci® surgical system. Cardiac surgeon Johannes Bonatti, M.D., a professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will perform a coronary artery bypass using just four or five small holes for the insertion of the instruments. The patient does not need a large chest incision, so there will be less pain, scarring and blood loss – resulting in a faster recovery. No foreign material is implanted and the bypass grafts will most likely stay open and supply the heart with blood for years to come. "My primary goal in performing heart bypass operations with the da Vinci® robot is to have a perfect graft, so that that he vessel will stay open and function for years. Using the robot, we can perform the surgery in a very precise way with out opening the chest. It is the same operation on the inside as the traditional bypass, but without the long recovery time and scar," Dr. Bonatti explains. To learn more about the procedure, click here.