Challenges facing totally endoscopic robotic coronary artery bypass grafting

Review of Contemporary Techniques for Minimally Invasive Coronary Revascularization

Minimally invasive coronary revascularization techniques aim to avoid median sternotomy with its associated complications, while facilitating recovery and maintaining the benefits of surgical revascularization. The 3 most common procedures are minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting, totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass, and hybrid coronary revascularization. For a variety of reasons, including cost and technical difficulty, not many centers are routinely performing minimally invasive coronary revascularization. Nevertheless, many studies have assessed the safety and efficacy of each of these procedures in different clinical contexts. Thus far results have been promising, and with the evolution of procedural techniques, these approaches have the potential to redefine coronary revascularization in the future. This review highlights the current state of minimally invasive coronary revascularization techniques by exploring their benefits, identifying barriers to their adoption, and discussing future potential paradigms.

Eleven-year outcomes of U-clips in totally robotic coronary artery bypass grafting versus standard hand-sewn running suture in robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass grafting

 

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients undergoing off-pump robotic coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with either interrupted nitinol U-Clips in totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB) or standard running suture anastomosis in robotically assisted direct coronary artery bypass (RADCAB) over a decade.

METHODS

From January 2007 to December 2017, 280 patients underwent robotic off-pump CABG using the da Vinci S/Si Surgical System in our centre. TECAB with interrupted nitinol U-Clips anastomosis was performed in the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to LAD grafting in 126 patients and RADCAB (n = 154) of the LIMA to LAD was completed with standard running suture. After discharge, patients were contacted through telephone interview and were invited to attend the outpatient clinic every 6 months or 1 year. The graft patency was assessed by coronary angiography or computed tomography angiography.

RESULTS

All cases were completed without conversion to median sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass. A total of 275 single internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts (271 LIMAs, 4 right internal mammary arteries) and 5 bilateral IMA grafts were used as single graft or composite grafts. All the patients were discharged without in-hospital mortality or adverse outcomes. The average follow-up was 89.7 ± 30.4 months (range, 14-143 months). The cumulative survival rates (P = 0.53), the cumulative IMA patency rates (P = 0.83), and the rates of freedom from major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events (P = 0.41) between TECAB and RADCAB all showed no significant difference in the follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Robotic off-pump CABG using IMA grafts is safe and can provide reliable long-term outcomes. Compared with the standard hand-sewn running suture technique in RADCAB, interrupted suture with the nitinol U-Clips in TECAB showed similar long-term clinical results and graft patency in LIMA to LAD bypass grafting.

Robot-assisted coronary artery bypass surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of comparative studies

BACKGROUND

Robot-assisted coronary bypass (RCAB) surgery has been proposed as an alternative to conventional coronary artery bypass grafting (C-CABG) for managing coronary heart disease, but the evidence on its performance compared to other existing treatments is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess, through a systematic review of comparative studies, the safety and clinical effectiveness of RCAB compared to C-CABG and other minimally invasive approaches for the treatment of coronary heart disease.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review of primary studies in the English-language literature comparing RCAB to existing treatment options (C-CABG, minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass [MIDCAB] and port-access coronary artery bypass [PA-CAB]) following Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Meta-analyses were performed where appropriate.

RESULTS

We reviewed 13 studies: 11 primary studies of RCAB (v. C-CABG in 7, v. MIDCAB in 3 and v. PA-CAB in 1) and 2 multicentre database studies (RCAB v. non-RCAB). The overall quality of the evidence was low. Most studies showed no significant benefit of RCAB over other treatments in a majority of outcome variables. Meta-analyses showed that RCAB had lower rates of pneumonia or wound infection than C-CABG, and shorter intensive care unit length of stay than C-CABG or MIDCAB. Individual studies showed that RCAB had some better outcomes than C-CABG (ventilation time, transfusion, postoperative pain, hospital length of stay) or MIDCAB (transfusion, postoperative pain, time to return to normal activities, physical functioning and hospital length of stay). The review of the database studies showed that RCAB was statistically superior to non-RCAB approaches in postoperative pain, renal failure, transfusion, reoperation for bleeding, stroke and hospital length of stay; however, the difference between the 2 groups in several of these outcomes was small.

CONCLUSION

Although the findings from this review of comparative studies of RCAB appear promising and suggest that RCAB may offer some benefits to patients, in the absence of randomized controlled trials, these results should be interpreted cautiously.

Prevalence of haptic feedback in robot-mediated surgery: a systematic review of literature

With the successful uptake and inclusion of robotic systems in minimally invasive surgery and with the increasing application of robotic surgery (RS) in numerous surgical specialities worldwide, there is now a need to develop and enhance the technology further. One such improvement is the implementation and amalgamation of haptic feedback technology into RS which will permit the operating surgeon on the console to receive haptic information on the type of tissue being operated on. The main advantage of using this is to allow the operating surgeon to feel and control the amount of force applied to different tissues during surgery thus minimising the risk of tissue damage due to both the direct and indirect effects of excessive tissue force or tension being applied during RS. We performed a two-rater systematic review to identify the latest developments and potential avenues of improving technology in the application and implementation of haptic feedback technology to the operating surgeon on the console during RS. This review provides a summary of technological enhancements in RS, considering different stages of work, from proof of concept to cadaver tissue testing, surgery in animals, and finally real implementation in surgical practice. We identify that at the time of this review, while there is a unanimous agreement regarding need for haptic and tactile feedback, there are no solutions or products available that address this need. There is a scope and need for new developments in haptic augmentation for robot-mediated surgery with the aim of improving patient care and robotic surgical technology further.