Inside Cleveland Clinic’s robotically assisted mitral valve repair program

Is your facility curious about robotically assisted mitral valve repair? Cleveland Clinic, which has now performed more than 2,600 of these operations, has plenty to share with you about it. And it claims that its safety and efficacy are “comparable” to open repair.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Per Wierup, MD, PhD, whom Cleveland Clinic describes as Europe’s premier mitral valve surgeon prior to joining its staff, likes the robotically assisted procedure because it provides improved visualization versus most other surgical or catheter-based minimally invasive heart procedures. “The magnification is so good and the 360-degree orientation is so revealing that it feels like I’m sitting inside the heart and seeing the mitral valve from there,” he says. “I believe I can do a better repair with the robot than without it.”

Cleveland Clinic says the literature shows that robotic mitral valve repair also benefits patients in numerous ways: much smaller incisions, lower risk of blood transfusion, more rapid recovery and return to physical function and employment, shorter length of hospital stay, and lower incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation.

These robot-assisted repairs now represent between 70% and 80% of isolated mitral valve repairs performed at Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus, and it has acquired a second, even more powerful robot along the way to meet demand.

Go much deeper inside Cleveland Clinic’s program via this new article on its Consult QD website for physicians and healthcare professionals.