TECAB Typical Case Presentation – Fully robotic non-stop coronary artery bypass grafting

  Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), commonly known as coronary artery bypass grafting, is internationally recognized as the most effective treatment for coronary artery disease. It involves using the patient’s own saphenous vein (a large vein in the patient’s lower extremity) and the internal thoracic artery (or internal mammary artery) as bypass graft material to bridge a new ‘vessel bridge’ over an obstructed or mostly blocked coronary artery, with one end of the bridge anastomosed to the aorta and the other end anastomosed to the distal end of the diseased coronary artery segment. Blood rich in oxygen and nutrients from the aorta flows through the bridged ‘vessel’ to the muscles of the heart itself, rapidly changing the state of myocardial ischemia and hypoxia, resulting in rapid improvement of symptoms such as angina pectoris in most patients and a significant improvement in the patient’s quality of life.  While conventional coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) takes a median chest incision to manually free the internal mammary artery, fully robotic nonstop coronary artery bypass grafting (TECAB) uses a robotic surgical system to free the internal mammary artery. The application of this system allows patients and operators to benefit to the greatest extent from this world leading-edge minimally invasive cardiac surgery technology: (1) Non-medial opening of the chest without destroying the bony structure of the thorax, which reduces the trauma of the operation and the psychological burden of the patient. (2) It is not limited by the incision and can take the longest possible internal mammary artery, avoiding the limitation of the length of the internal mammary artery taken in the previous minimally invasive surgery. (3) The robotic system can also eliminate the tremor of the surgeon’s hand through software processing, and it can also convert the large movement of the control handle into fine movements within the patient’s body in proportion, thus ensuring accurate and fine internal mammary artery freeing.  On April 3, 2007, the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of PLA General Hospital successfully completed the first fully robotic non-stop coronary artery bypass grafting (TECAB) in Asia, in which the operator operated the robotic surgical system to perform complex and detailed artery dissection and anastomosis. To date, all seven TECAB procedures have been successful and the patients have been discharged from the hospital.         Our patient: Li was admitted to the hospital with “coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, unstable angina, and diabetes mellitus”. The coronary angiogram showed 90% stenosis in the proximal middle part of the anterior descending branch with obvious symptoms. The patient underwent fully robotic non-stop coronary artery bypass grafting on June 28, 2008, and recovery was significantly accelerated after the operation. He was transferred out of the care unit on the first postoperative day and was ambulatory on the third day.                                    Postoperative incision healed well. Postoperative CT review, bridge blood flow was smooth.