Robotic, totally endoscopic atrial septal defect repair

Atrial septal defect accounts for 10-15% of congenital heart disease cases. Small-diameter atrial septal defects diagnosed during infancy or early adulthood are prone to spontaneous closure, whereas uncorrected, persistent moderate or large atrial septal defects can induce left-to-right shunting, which causes volume overload, heart failure, atrial arrhythmia, and/or pulmonary hypertension starting between the third and fourth decades of life. We describe in detail our technique for totally endoscopic, robotic-assisted atrial septal defect repair.