Birmingham Baptists took part in history this month as Trinity Medical Center, an affiliate of Birmingham’s Baptist Health System (BHS), was the site of the first robotic mitral valve repair in the state. BHS was founded by Birmingham Baptist Association, and the two maintain a close relationship.
Dr. C. Duane Randleman, a cardiothoracic surgeon, used the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System for the Oct. 2 procedure. “This is a new era in the evolution of heart surgery because we can now perform more complex operations without opening the chest,” Randleman said.
Robotic-assisted cardiovascular procedures avoid the drawbacks of traditional heart surgery and are minimally invasive, he noted.
“The patient is the one who truly benefits from this,” Randleman explained. “Use of the da Vinci system means no sternal incisions; decreases in blood loss … less pain, scarring and discomfort; less invasive care; shorter hospital stays; reduced risks of infection; reduced trauma to the body; faster recovery; and quicker return to normal activities.”
Mitral valve repair is usually an open-heart procedure performed by cardiothoracic surgeons to treat stenosis (narrowing) or regurgitation (leakage) of the mitral valve. The mitral valve is the “inflow valve” for the left side of the heart. Blood flows from the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, and into the heart through the mitral valve. When it opens, the mitral valve allows blood to flow into the heart’s main pumping chamber, called the left ventricle. It then closes to keep blood from leaking back into the lungs when the ventricle contracts to push blood out to the body.
If the mitral valve leaks, then blood flows backward into the lungs. The ventricle must therefore pump more blood with each contraction to produce the same forward output of blood throughout the body.
This resulting condition is called a volume overload. The heart can compensate for this volume overload for many months or years, but it eventually begins to fail, producing symptoms of shortness of breath or fatigue.
Recent evidence suggests that earlier surgical intervention, particularly if repair is possible, may prevent irreversible damage to the heart.
Using the da Vinci Surgical System gives surgeons a 3-D view of the operating field that is magnified 10 times, which provides an excellent view of delicate tissue and organs. The instruments are designed to be able to mimic the movements of the surgeon’s hands and wrists, giving him or her excellent flexibility and control when operating on delicate tissue. (TMC, TAB)
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