Baptist Health Care - Cardiac Robotic Surgery

If your doctor recommends surgery to treat mitral valve prolapse, you may be a candidate for da Vinci® Mitral Valve Repair, potentially the most effective least invasive treatment option available. da Vinci Mitral Valve Repair is an alternative to conventional open heart surgery – the traditional way to treat mitral valve disease. da Vinci Mitral Valve Repair is performed using the da Vinci Surgical System, enabling your surgeon to operate with unparalleled precision and control through a few small incisions.

In addition to avoiding the pain and trauma of sternotomy and rib spreading, da Vinci Mitral Valve Repair provides most patients with the following benefits over open surgery:

Less risk of infection
Less blood loss and need for blood transfusions
Shorter hospital stay
Significantly less pain and scarring
Faster recovery
Quicker return to normal activities
And a potentially better clinical outcome

Old vs. New

While surgery is generally the most effective way to treat disorders of the heart, lungs and esophagus, traditional open surgery has a number of inherent drawbacks caused primarily by making a large incision, splitting of the breastbone and spreading the ribs to access the thoracic space. In addition to an 8 to 10” scar down the center of your chest, splitting of the breastbone leads to a lengthy recovery time as well as a prolonged delay before you will return to normal daily activities.

The minimally invasive da Vinci® Surgical System, provides surgeons and patients with what may be the most effective, least invasive treatment alternative for even the most complex cardiothoracic procedures such as mitral valve repair.

Heart Valve Disease

Heart Valves

Heart valves regulate the flow of blood through the heart's four chambers—two small, round upper chambers (atria) and two larger, cone-shaped lower chambers (ventricles). Each ventricle has a one-way inlet valve and a one-way outlet valve. In the right ventricle, the inlet valve is the tricuspid valve, which opens from the right atrium, and the outlet valve is the pulmonary (pulmonic) valve, which opens into the pulmonary arteries. In the left ventricle, the inlet valve is the mitral valve, which opens from the left atrium, and the outlet valve is the aortic valve, which opens into the aorta. Each valve consists of flaps (cusps or leaflets), which open and close like one-way swinging doors.

Heart Valve Disorders

Heart valves don't always work as they should. A person can be born with an abnormal heart valve, a type of congenital heart defect.

A defective heart valve is one that fails to fully open or close. A stenotic heart valve can't open completely, so blood is pumped through a smaller-than-normal opening. A valve also may not be able to close completely. This leads to regurgitation (blood leaking back through the valve when it should be closed).

Heart Valve Treatment

Most of the time, there are no (or few) symptoms for mitral valve conditions, and treatment is not needed. If you have severe mitral valve prolapse, you may need to stay in the hospital. Surgery to repair or replace the valve may be needed if you have severe mitral regurgitation or your symptoms get worse.

Surgery

Surgery should be considered in virtually all patients with a leak that is graded as a 4 (severe) and in some patients with a leak that is graded as a 3 (moderately severe). When a patient with mitral valve regurgitation develops symptoms, a decrease in heart function, or an increase in heart size, surgery is recommended. Surgery should also be considered when a patient develops atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heartbeat. Surgery is also recommended in many asymptomatic patients who have a severe leak.

Minimally Invasive Surgery

Recently, minimally invasive approaches to Mitral Valve Repair are replacing sternotomy as the surgical method of choice. Of the minimally invasive approaches, robotic surgery (da Vinci Surgery) has many practical advantages for both the patient and the surgeon – precision, fewer complications, reduced blood loss and shorter hospital stays.