(Richmond, VA) - Henrico Doctors’ Hospital has been selected as one of 12 hospitals nationwide to conduct a clinical trial to perform closed-chest coronary artery bypass surgery using the da Vinci™ Surgical System.

Approved by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the clinical trial, which is expected to begin soon, is the first step toward demonstrating that closed-chest bypasses can be performed safely and with less pain says Dr. Marc Katz, of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgical Associates, Ltd., the surgeon who will conduct the trial.

The nation’s first closed-chest bypass surgery took place January 15, 2002, and was performed on a 70-year-old man at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. Although the surgery took longer than a standard bypass surgery, the patient, Arthur Barrett, reported no pain. He went home six days later and appeared on ABC’s "Good Morning America" that day.

The Columbia surgeon used the da Vinci™ Surgical System to perform the single-vessel bypass through three pencil-sized incisions in Mr. Barrett’s chest. Physicians at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital-Forest have employed the da Vinci system in a wide range of operations since its purchase in July 2000. "Being selected as a site for the clinical trials is certainly a compliment to Dr. Katz and our hospital’s initiative to find minimally invasive ways to help our patients," said Patrick Farrell, HDH CEO. Formerly such experimental trials were reserved for major institutions like Columbia and Harvard. Mr. Farrell feels the hospital was probably chosen over competing institutions because Dr. Katz has already used the da Vinci to harvest the mammary artery and has taught cardiac surgeons throughout the U.S. how to perform the operation.

The recently granted FDA-approval will allow Intuitive Surgical, Inc., makers of the da Vinci™, to evaluate its use for minimally invasive grafting of the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending coronary artery, repeatedly documented to be the single best and most enduring procedure performed for coronary artery disease.

In the trials, Dr. Katz will insert a tiny camera and two mechanically enhanced EndoWrist™ instruments through three small incisions between the ribs. These pencil-sized instruments provide the dexterity of the surgeon’s forearm and wrist at the operative site through 8mm ports. The complete operation is performed through these small incisions. "Patients will clearly benefit by the use of the robotic surgery, due to the minimally invasive approach, with less pain and quicker recovery," Dr. Katz notes. In the first phase of trials, the patient will be placed on a heart-lung machine using an incision in the groin. It is anticipated that the second phase of the trials will be performed on a beating heart.

Officials at Intuitive Surgical say that the da Vinci™ was developed with cardiac surgery in mind. In the U.S., the da Vinci™ has been approved by the FDA for general and thoracic surgeries, many of which have been performed at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. In addition to the coronary artery bypass trials, it has also received FDA approval for mitral valve repair. In Europe, the da Vinci™ has already been approved for cardiac surgery since 1998 and is being used there for various heart surgeries, including the beating-heart bypass.

Intuitive’s only competitor, Computer Motion, manufactures a surgical robot called "Zeus." The Zeus device, however, is still in clinical trials seeking FDA approval for general and thoracic surgery. Clinical trials have been approved using the Zeus in tandem with open-chest cardiac bypass surgery, however these trials differ greatly from the da Vinci™ trials. With the Zeus, surgeons will perform traditional coronary artery bypass surgery and will still perform sternotomy to open the chest wall. The Zeus will only be used to anastomose, or surgically connect, the mammary artery to the coronary artery. The Intuitive trials are performed closed-chest, entirely with the da Vinci™ robot.

"Based on our experience with the da Vinci™ thus far, we expect that cardiac bypass surgery can be safely conducted through several small incisions with exceptionally good patient outcomes," Dr. Katz states. "We are optimistic that our patients will experience much less pain and trauma, better cosmetic results, and spend much less time in the intensive care unit and hospital compared to bypass surgery where the patient’s breastbone is split in half."

For more information, patients and physicians may call Dr. Katz at (804) 282-8777 or (800) 222-1014.

Henrico Doctors’ Hospitals, with campuses at 1602 Skipwith Road (Forest Campus) and 7700 E. Parham Road (Parham Campus) together form one of the largest and most advanced acute care facilities in Central Virginia. Henrico Doctors’ Hospitals provide innovative and world-class health care, typically found at a university medical center, delivered in a community hospital setting.