Robotically-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention: Reasons for partial manual assistance or manual conversion

Robotically-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention (R-PCI) is feasible for simple coronary lesions.

To determine the frequency and reasons for partial manual assistance or manual conversion during R-PCI in clinical practice.

The CorPath 200 System (Corindus, Waltham, MA) enables the operator to sit in a radiation-shielded cockpit and remotely control intracoronary devices including guidewires, balloons, and stents. Consecutive R-PCI procedures performed over 18months were analyzed to identify reasons for planned or unplanned manual assistance or manual conversion, and categorized as due to 1) adverse event; 2) technical limitation of the robotic platform; or 3) limited guide catheter/wire support.

During the study period, 108 R-PCI procedures (68.1±11.0years, 77.8% men, 69.4% elective PCI, 78.3% type B2/C lesions, and 50.3% left anterior descending/left main target lesion segment) were performed. High robotic technical success (91.7%) and clinical procedural success (99.1%) were achieved. Twenty procedures (18.5%) required either planned partial manual assistance (3.7%), unplanned partial manual assistance (7.4%), or manual conversion (7.4%). Among these procedures, manual assistance/conversion was required in 3 procedures for an adverse event (15%), 8 for technical limitation of the robotic platform (40%), and 9 for guide catheter/wire support issues (45%).

High clinical success with R-PCI for a complex lesion cohort is possible with only occasional partial manual assistance or manual conversion. The majority of procedures requiring manual assistance/conversion were due to limited guide catheter/wire support or robotic platform limitations, rather than occurrence of adverse events.