Medical Milestone: This Country Performs Its First Robotic Heart Surgeries on Young Patients

For the first time in Spain, doctors have used robotics to perform heart surgery on children and teenagers suffering from congenital heart disease.

Up until now, due to the size of robotic equipment, young patients had to undergo open-heart surgery for this type of procedure. However, modern robotics are getting smaller and are much less invasive, reducing both post-operational recovery time and aesthetic impact.

For robotic heart surgery, doctors make a small incision in the patient’s thorax, which allows them to insert a camera into the surgical area and see what needs to be done without opening the patient’s chest. Many doctors believe these modernized robotic surgery techniques will be able to aid in various diseases. For example, this latest advancement comes just a year after Spanish doctors led the way in completing the world’s first robotic lung transplant, which no longer requires the breaking of the patient’s ribs. As time goes on and advancements are made, robotic surgical interventions are likely to only become more advanced and thus successful for children and adults alike.