• Michael D Diodato and Ralph J Damiano.
• Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes Jewish Hospital, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. didodatom@msnnotes.wustl.edu
• Surg. Clin. North Am. 2003 Dec 1;83(6):1351-67, ix.

AbstractMost endoscopic procedures are excisional, not reconstructive or microsurgical, mostly because conventional endoscopic instrumentation lacks dexterity due to long, nonarticulated instruments, a fixed pivot point and counterintuitive movement of the instrument tip, and lack of depth perception. Endoscopic approaches to cardiac surgery have not been successful; however, the development of robotic surgical systems has overcome many limitations of endoscopy. Computer-assisted surgery has created a computerized digital interface between the surgeon's hands and surgical instrument tips and enhances surgical ability, thereby enabling endoscopic microsurgery. Recently, robotic systems have allowed cardiac surgeons to perform minimally invasive endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and valve procedures. This article summarizes the use of robotics in cardiac surgery and discusses its potential in our specialty.

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