In a landmark achievement for healthcare in Southeast Asia, St. Luke's Medical Center has launched the region's first robotic cardiac surgery program. This historic initiative was made possible through a collaborative effort between St. Luke's multidisciplinary team, led by Drs. Marvin Martinez and Ramiro Pablo, and the expert team from West Virginia University's (WVU) Heart and Vascular Institute, including Dr. Vinay Badhwar, Dr. Lawrence Wei, and physician assistant Herald Fe.
The program debuted with a series of innovative robotic-assisted cardiac procedures, showcasing the transformative potential of this advanced technology. Among the groundbreaking surgeries performed were:
Robotic MIDCAB (Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass)
Robotic bileaflet mitral valve repair for severe mitral regurgitation (MR) due to bileaflet myxomatous disease
Robotic mitral valve repair for endocarditis, including anterior mitral leaflet perforation
Robotic adult congenital atrial septal reconstruction using a bovine patch for a patient with a common atrium
Robotic aortic valve replacement (AVR) for a patient from Papua New Guinea
The first robotic valve surgery—a repair of a severely regurgitant mitral valve in a 40-year-old patient—marked a defining moment in the program's success. With guidance from WVU's Heart and Vascular Institute, the procedure was completed with precision and excellence, underscoring the collaboration's impact.
Dr. Pablo expressed his excitement, saying, "This is a monumental step forward for cardiac care in Southeast Asia. Our partnership with the WVU team has empowered us to provide patients with less invasive, highly precise procedures and faster recoveries."
Dr. Martinez added, "Establishing this robotic cardiac surgery program has been a dream realized through our team's dedication and the invaluable expertise of our WVU partners. This is just the beginning of a new era in cardiac care."
Reflecting on the collaboration, Dr. Badhwar remarked, "Teamwork truly makes the dream work. The exceptional multidisciplinary team at St. Luke's has shown that vision, determination, and collaboration can achieve extraordinary outcomes."
St. Luke's Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program is set to advance care across the region, offering minimally invasive options that reduce pain, recovery time, and the risk of complications.
CHICAGO, IL – December 10, 2024 – Annals of Thoracic Surgery Short Reports (Annals Short Reports), The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ peer-reviewed, open-access journal, has been accepted for indexing in PubMed Central,1 expanding its reach and impact within the global medical community. Beginning in early 2025, all articles that have been published in Annals Short Reports will be indexed and viewable and included in general search results on PubMed/MEDLINE.
A groundbreaking surgical achievement has been made by the team at West Virginia University (WVU) Heart and Vascular Institute, led by Dr. Vinay Badhwar, the executive chair of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute and the second vice president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. On October 31, 2024, the team performed the world’s first combined robotic aortic valve replacement (AVR) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) through a single small incision.
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Dr. Vinay Badhwar
The pioneering procedure was performed on 73-year-old Poppy McGee, a patient with a complex medical history, including a stroke, brain surgery, and significant weight loss. Referred to Dr. Badhwar for treatment of both aortic valve disease and coronary artery disease, McGee initially faced the prospect of traditional open-heart surgery. However, when she and her family learned of its risks—over a 10% chance of mortality and nearly 50% likelihood of complications—they inquired about alternative options.
Dr. Badhwar explained his team had developed a novel robotic approach that had yet to be tested on a patient. After a thorough discussion of the risks and benefits, McGee and her family agreed to proceed with the innovative robotic surgery.
The procedure involved both AVR and CABG, performed entirely robotically through a single incision on the far right of McGee’s chest. The success of the surgery has sparked optimism about the potential for broader adoption of robotic heart surgery for patients with complex conditions.
“While we are still in the early days of this latest innovation, the ability to perform valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery fully robotically through a single incision has the potential to open up a new era of robotic heart surgery,” Dr. Badhwar noted in a prepared statement. “We must always keep quality outcomes at the forefront of all innovation. However, if surgeons adopt and gain experience with techniques such as this one, they will tackle this last frontier that previously limited a robotic approach. One day in the near future, this may serve as a platform to perform nearly all types of heart surgery.”
This revolutionary procedure potentially paves the way for less invasive operations. Dr. Lawrence Wei, a professor at the WVU Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, remarked on the impact of this advancement: "Patients who have both valve disease and coronary artery disease have traditionally been treated by open-heart surgery performed through the breastbone. This new robotic technique could redefine how we approach these cases."
Dr. Goya Raikar, an assistant professor at WVU and a member of Badhwar’s robotics team, also underscored the procedure's significance: "Until now, the main exclusion for us to perform a robotic approach has been the coexistence of valve and coronary artery disease. Building on our experience with robotic aortic valve surgery, this new approach may help us extend robotic surgery options to many more patients."
The patient’s daughter, Mollie Wilcosky, expressed gratitude for the groundbreaking care provided by the WVU team. “We are so thankful for Dr. Badhwar and the team at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute for developing this robotic procedure to help my mother recover so well,” Wilcosky said. “She is getting stronger every day.”
The full details of the procedure will be in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, highlighting how innovative approaches like this continue to redefine the future of cardiothoracic surgery.
References:
• Cardiovascular Business article on the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute's groundbreaking surgery.
• WV News article detailing the multidisciplinary team and procedural innovations at WVU Medicine’s WVU Heart and Vascular Institute.
It is time to reconsider the management of Aortic valve Disease (AVD) across the world. In South Asian and Sub-Saharan African nations, in low-income countries, AVD is treated with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). Patients receive mechanical valves. The population is younger than in high-income countries and the disease is different, mostly of rheumatic origin.
CHICAGO, IL – October 17, 2024 – The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) announces the release of two new risk calculators to inform physician-patient decision-making in thoracic surgery. Engineered using contemporary data from the STS General Thoracic Surgery Database, these interactive tools provide surgeons with accurate, preoperative risk estimations for outcomes of esophagectomy for cancer and pulmonary resection for lung cancer.
Earlier this month, more than 470 data managers attended the 2024 Advances in Quality & Outcomes: A Data Manager’s Meeting (AQO) in Nashville, both virtually and in person. Throughout the successful three-day event, surgical team data managers deepened their understanding of the STS National Database. They learned about new features, functionality, quality improvement initiatives, and research outcomes from surgeon leaders, Database platform experts, and fellow data managers. This expanded knowledge will help them be integral to their heart team as they lead their centers to improve clinical outcomes and patient safety using the STS National Database.
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Attendees included (l to r): Ram Kumar Subramanyan, MD, PhD; John E. Mayer Jr., MD; Timothe L’Heureux, MHA; Susana C. Reid, BSN, RN, CPN; Amanda McGlinchey, MHA, RN, CCRN; and Erin Hunter-McPhan, BSN, RN.
The event showcased the Database's unique analytical power in supporting ongoing outcomes analysis and continuous improvement efforts for each institution. Experts led in-depth discussions and presented four learning tracks to help users master each Database registry: Adult Cardiac, Congenital Heart, General Thoracic, and Intermacs/Pedimacs.
Here’s what a few attendees had to say:
“Thank you for the opportunity to speak at AQO this year. It was very well organized, and I felt I had excellent communication throughout the process. I know A LOT of work goes into coordinating events like this, so thank you for your efforts. It was really nice to get to talk with other users and share tips and tricks!” – Marie Wilson, MSHQS, MSN, RN, quality coordinator at University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital
“The conference last week was great! I really enjoyed the presentations, Q&A, and meeting other data managers. Keep up the great work!”– Clera Sugarbaker, performance improvement analyst/abstractor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
“Thank you for a great conference. I am proud to be a part of the STS Intermacs community. We truly do great things!! Looking forward to what is to come.” – Elizabeth Spreen, RN, clinical quality analyst at Baton Rouge General Medical Center
ProHealth Heart and Vascular Care in Waukesha, Wis., embarked on a multidisciplinary initiative to reduce ventilation times for isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting patients at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. The goals: Reduce the risk of patient harm associated with mechanical ventilation and achieve significant improvements in teamwork and safety culture.
In the realm of cardiovascular care, ensuring adherence to quality metrics is paramount for achieving better patient outcomes. But having a lot of data is not enough. Every healthcare professional who plays a role on an integrated patient care team needs to be aware of the data available to them, understand what it means, and act on that understanding. And that’s a challenge that exists across the health system.
