HOUSTON — A surgeon may have been calling the shots, but in an operating room in Houston, a robot with four arms was the one operating on a patient's heart.
The man on the table is Joseph Christopherson. Tightness in his chest sent the father of two to the emergency room where he learned he had a condition called a myocardial bridge.
"Each test was a little more serious. When they said surgery was the way to correct it, I didn't really believe it at first" he said.
He opted for a robot-assisted procedure, which we're told is becoming more common.
"It's a lot less invasive," said Dr. Danny Ramzy with UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann. "Smaller incisions. We don't spread the ribs or bones."
Ramzy is a cardiac surgeon who specializes in robotics. He said while using this system helps him see better, there are drawbacks.
A minimally invasive surgery, like Christopherson's, could be done the traditional way, while robot-assisted surgery requires surgeons to undergo training to properly use the technology.
"The surgeon's first few cases are longer. Risk of complications are a little higher. But after the first few cases, everything decreases back to normal," Ramzy said. "With time, over 50 cases, we find much lower complications in general."
Christopherson was back home with his family less than a week after surgery.
"Advancement, progress, being able to be a part of that…and the idea of it being a robot. That is pretty awesome," he said.
Some doctors believe robotics will eventually be part of the training for the next generation of cardiac surgeons.