The Beat goes on

I, Science 20 March 2006
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FEBRUARY: Traditional bypass operations involve stopping and opening the heart, while using an artificial pump to keep blood flowing around the body. But new robotic software may soon remove the need to even open the chest.

The software works with a surgical robot called da Vinci, enabling it to synchronise the movement of its tools with the beating of the heart.

Some surgeons currently slow the heart down by cooling it, but this is still risky. "It's a difficult procedure on a stationary piece of tissue, let alone when it is moving," said Dr. Rajesh Aggarwal of Imperial College, speaking at the Medical Devices Technology Conference in Birmingham this month.

The da Vinci robot, along with the new software, uses a-two camera endoscope to create a 3D view of the heart. The software tracks the movement of the surgeon's eyes as the heart beats, and compensates by moving the endoscope, generating an image that appears stationary and enabling the surgeon to concentrate on the procedure itself.

So far the technology has only been tested on an artificial silicone heart, but further refinements could one day remove the need for traumatic open-heart surgery and even enable surgeons to operate with the chest closed.