What you need to know about Robotic Heart Surgery

The best way to get healthy is to avoid getting sick in the first place. Most major illnesses that we encounter could probably have been avoided if we had lived our lives in a more healthy way. Truly, the best treatment is prevention, and the easiest way to insure a healthy heart throughout your life is by maintaining a healthy diet. If your diet is heavy in saturated fat and cholesterol then you are greatly increasing your chances of having heart problems down the road. If you reduce the amount of high cholesterol foods you eat (such as red meat), then you can dramatically cut down your risk of heart problems. The other part of this equation is to replace the red meat with health foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables are always the best option. Exercising more is another great way to lower your risk of heart disease. And if you smoke, quitting today is another essential to a healthy heart. Many people focus on the ill effects on the lungs, completely forgetting that smoking is awful for your heart to. When you increase your level of exercise and stop smoking you are taking your future, and the health of your heart, into your own hands. Still, all the prevention in the world can’t always get around bad genetics or bad luck. Sometimes you can do it all right and still end up with heart problems. You might even need to undergo heart surgery. No matter how you ended up with heart problems, heart surgery might end up being a reality in your life. Luckily, the procedure of heart surgery has become more advanced than it ever was before. Robotically assisted heart surgery is an incredible technique that makes this process safer and more effective than ever before. Interested in the truth about robotically assisted heart surgery? Sometimes robotically assisted heart surgery is actually called closed-chest heart surgery. Closed-chest, or robotically assisted, heart surgery is a minimally invasive heart surgery. In the past, heart surgeons would make a cut in the patient’s chest that measured up to one foot long. They had to open up the entire breastbone and then operate. Robotically assisted heart surgery does not work like this. With closed-chest heart surgery the doctor makes an incision (sometimes two) in the chest. Each incision is only the size of a fingertip. The best part about robotically assisted heart surgery is that the doctor does not have to open up the breast bone. The ribs do not have to be split apart to operate. While splitting the ribs and opening the breast bone is no more or less effective in the actual surgery department, it does make the healing process much more difficult. When the surgeon performs closed-chest heart surgery, the patient can often recover dramatically faster and get back to their everyday life in a fraction of the time they could with normal surgery. The da Vinci Surgical System When performing robotically assisted heart surgery, a lot of surgeons will use something called the da Vinci system. It utilizes enhanced dexterity, visualization, precision, and control to make sure the doctor has every conceivable tool at their disposal. This is a much more useful tool than the old fashioned laprascopic technology. The da Vinci system has an incredible enabling technology system. The console for the surgeon is ergonomically designed. This gives the doctor conducting the operation as much control as they could want. As the patient lies down during surgery, the doctor operates using four robotic arms. They control the interactive arms thanks to a high performance vision system that utilizes EndoWrist instruments. There is no way to program the da Vinci Surgical System. This machine does not make its own decisions. All of its maneuvers must be based off of the surgeon operating at the console. At the same time a surgical team will be stationed at the patients bedside as well. This machine has been used around the world during literally thousands of minimally invasive cardiac surgeries. A wide range of patients has experienced the fantastic results. Fantastic results are what robotic heart surgery is all about. In the past, cardiac surgeons had to cut the chest of the patient wide open, break apart the breastbone, and operate entirely by hand. The dangers of that old technique are readily apparent. For one, it was very risky. Even if it went well, it would take the patient a long time before they could heal fully. But those days are finally long gone. Candidates for robotic heart surgery can have a much better chance of success today. Not only that but they can also heal in a much shorter time than they could in the past. If you are someone you know is facing cardiac surgery, it is well worth it to explore the possibility of robotic heart surgery. The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice. All medical information presented should be discussed with your healthcare professional. Remember, the failure to seek timely medical advice can have serious ramifications. We urge you to discuss any current health related problems you are experiencing with a healthcare professional immediately.