Robotic Catheter Saves Man’s Life – The Precise Navigation of the Robot Did the Job

We hear about robotic surgery procedures quite a bit today with the DaVinci machine, and with catheter placement, this is also going robotic. This is a case where you may want your interventional radiologist and/or cardiologist close at hand, literally. This robot from Hansen is a bit different than the DaVinci that we are probably all familiar with at this point. This one is specifically made for catheter surgeries. Just a few months ago at Scripps they used the robotic catheter system the first time.

Sensei® Robotic Catheter System Does Heart Surgery at Scripps in San Diego

I had an interview with the chief of Yale Interventional Radiology a while back and he did a real good job explaining how this works and what the word “interventional” means in front of a doctor’s title. In the case of this story, the path to place the stent was curved and difficult to reach and without the robotic procedure may not have been possible. It is tough enough to just have undergone a lung transplant and all the issues that go along there and then have an additional complication of a narrowed artery not allowing enough blood to reach it. BD

Interview with Bart E. Muhs, M.D., Yale School of Medicine – Aneurysm Repair Surgery

Dr. Alan Lumsden, chair of the department of cardiovascular surgery at Methodist, and Dr. Miguel Valderrábano, chief of the division of cardiac electrophysiology, used a robotic catheter to place a stent in a patient’s pulmonary artery when it became severely narrowed after his transplant, potentially damaging the new lung.

Pulmonary artery stenosis or narrowing of the pulmonary artery that carries oxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs, can occur where the transplanted lung is sewn to the patient’s own pulmonary artery. Physicians use stents, mesh tubes that are used to prop open clogged arteries, to restore blood flow to the lungs.

Lumsden and Valderrábano used a Sensei® robotic catheter system designed by Hansen Medical for use inside the heart to successfully reach the narrowed part of the pulmonary artery. The robot allowed the physicians to compensate for the motion of the beating heart, and place the stent safely and accurately, providing the patient’s new lung with a ready flow of oxygenated blood. This was the first time in the U.S. that the robotic catheter was used outside of the heart. Valderrábano used 3D guided imaging to direct the robotic catheter to precisely the right spot to place the stent. With successful implantation of the stent, the patient avoided being placed again on the lung transplant list.