Robotic Surgery On a Beating Heart

An anonymous reader writes "Serious heart surgery usually involves stopping the organ and keeping the patient alive with a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. But this risks brain damage and requires a long recuperation. Scientists at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston have now developed a device that lets surgeons operate on a beating heart with a steady hand. The 'robotic' device uses 3-D ultrasound images to predict and compensate for the motion of the heart so that the surgeon can work on a faulty valve as it moves. The approach should improve recovery times and give a surgeon instant feedback on the success of the procedure, the researchers say. Here's a (slightly gory) video of the device in action."

Comments

NOW they tell me!

[dazedNconfuzed]

I had valve replacement surgery two months ago. While everything went extremely well (thank you Emory hospital), my wife would have appreciated not hearing the words "it's going well, they're stopping his heart now...".

OOOHH NOES!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

NOW THEY'RE DISSECTING US!

Re:What if something goes wrong?

[The Gaytriot]

I'd say that's the point of the ultrasound. Otherwise, if the robot simply attempted to predict the position of the heart by it's rhythm alone there would be serious issues.

Using the ultrasound, which updates the position to a computer (probably updating around 4-5 MHz), means that the robot can compensate for the position close enough to real time that it can avoid mistakes (there is still the tiny delay).

Any irregularities due to Arrhythmia should not be an issue, the heart will probably not change beating faster than the computer and robot can compensate.

Sat in on one once...

[angrytuna]

I was able to sit in on an open heart surgery at one point in my life. After the surgeon cracked the chest open, he inserted a surgical glove full of (I think) normal saline, tied off at the wrist. Called it a 'helping hand'. The heart continued to beat merrily away on top of it, and they used a device called an octopus to hold the pertinent section of the heart still.

To date, remains one of the coolest things I have ever seen.