Prof. Dr. med. Jürg Grünenfelder from the Hirslanden Heart Clinic in Zurich goes one step further. For the first time in German-speaking Switzerland, they are using a robot to perform minimally invasive procedures on the mitral valve. What are the advantages? "Thanks to robot technology, the surgeon sees the small operating field three-dimensionally and magnified tenfold.
The access is smaller than with the normal minimally invasive method, and the ribs are not spread at all. Teamwork is required. Prof. Grünenfelder operates the Da Vinci robot and focuses on the surgical intervention. I stand directly at the operating table and support him. We can see much more and much more clearly in the chest area because the robot works with tiny instruments. Thanks to the precise robot technology, defective heart valves can be preserved and repaired even if they would have had to be replaced long ago using the conventional method. And every heart specialist knows that it is much better to repair a heart valve than to replace it.
Higher requirements than for normal surgery
Grünenfelder acquired knowledge about the new robot technology from colleagues in New York and Brussels. And after thorough examination, the decision was made to offer this type of heart surgery in Zurich at all. "The demands on the surgical team are higher than for a normal operation. It requires a great deal of dexterity and practice, coupled with great experience," says Prof. Jürg Grünenfelder. "This is truly top-class medicine. Once you've done it this way, you don't want to work without a robot. It's really worth it. And the results are impressive. A few weeks ago, we operated on an 83-year-old woman on the mitral valve. After the gentle intervention with the Da Vinci robot, she got up the very next day and walked around. On the fifth day she said she felt very well and wanted to go home. It is almost like a miracle. People who could barely climb stairs before the operation blossom again completely in a very short time."
