No-touch aorta robot-assisted atrial septal defect repair via two ports

Atrial septal defect (ASD) repairs have been successfully performed on arrested hearts with robotic assistance. The present study assessed the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of totally endoscopic cardiac surgery using a no-touch aorta technique for ASD via only 2 ports, and we named this procedure two-port robotic cardiac surgery (TROCS).

Between May 2014 and June 2016, 8 consecutive patients underwent TROCS for ASD using the da Vinci surgical system (Intuitive Surgical Inc.) at our institute. All of the procedures were performed via only 2 port incisions in the right chest. One was the camera port, and the other was the port for the robotic instruments. Both robotic instruments were inserted through this port and crossed while being prevented from colliding with each other. The surgeon console was set to the reverse of default settings so that both masters would control the inverse instrument. TROCS for ASD was carried out under ventricular fibrillation induced by combinations of an electrical fibrillator, injection of potassium, and hypothermia without aortic cross-clamping.

All cases were successfully repaired. The mean operation, cardiopulmonary bypass and ventricular fibrillation times were 129.6 ± 29.0 min, 66.9 ± 24.5 min and 9.6 ± 5.9 min, respectively, and the estimated blood loss volume was 28.1 ± 58.6 ml. No patients required blood transfusion during their hospital stay, and their cosmetic results were excellent.

TROCS for ASD using no-touch aorta technique was achieved safely with good clinical results and excellent cosmetic results.