Da Vinci performed its first operation on a human being in March 1997. Last July, the Food and Drug Administration cleared da Vinci for use in laparoscopic procedures, such as removing the gallbladder or surgically correcting severe heartburn through small incisions. The robot has been employed experimentally in Germany to remove cancerous prostate glands while sparing the nerves that control erection and the muscles that control urination. In the United States, mitral-valve repair has become da Vinci's forte. This valve regulates blood flow between the heart's left atrium and left ventricle.
Blood can pool if it weakens or leaks, causing heart failure and thousands of deaths each year.
It would have been difficult or impossible with conventional treatment, with her chest split to provide easy access to the heart, since her cut bones and muscles would not have healed sufficiently. Chitwood has now done more than a dozen successful valve repairs and has set up a multicenter trial for 2001. When I was first learning how to use it, I dropped a suture and reflexively reached under the console to pick it up. Many physicians will resist switching to robot-assisted surgery. One way da Vinci can help is by filtering out hand tremor.