El Camino surgeons use da Vinci robot for cardiac bypass surgery

The breastbone is usually the price of entry for coronary artery bypass grafting, or CABG, the operation that creates new routes for blood around blocked heart arteries. At El Camino Health’s Heart and Vascular Institute, surgeons are now using Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robot to perform that bypass through small incisions between the ribs instead of cutting and spreading the chest bone.

Dr. Nels Carroll performed the institute’s first robotic bypass procedure. The robot’s cameras and instruments fit through those openings, allowing the team to carry out the same basic operation without cutting bone or major muscle groups. Carroll compares the heart’s arteries to fuel lines feeding an engine: bypass surgery adds new lines when disease blocks the old ones.

The practical promise is recovery. Carroll says patients generally face less pain and a less traumatic experience when the chest is not opened in the conventional way. Raul Martin, a 64-year-old patient who regularly walked three to five miles and did resistance training, said he was up walking the halls the day after surgery, went home a couple of days later and has returned to his usual routine.

The approach is still rare: 1% of coronary bypass procedures are performed with robotic assistance. Carroll says it is not appropriate for every patient, because some operations require the larger incision and full access to the heart. Greater adoption also depends on more physicians knowing that robotic bypass is available and on surgeons becoming comfortable with a different way to operate.

For selected cardiac patients, the robot may mean less pain and a quicker recovery from the surgical access. It also changes the operating room for surgeons and trainees, with better ergonomics and a clearer view of the work. The technique is already being used at El Camino Health, but it remains an option alongside conventional bypass, not a universal replacement.