CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- Dr. Michael E. Ibrahim brought the state of Virginia into new territory by performing the first robotic-aided heart surgery at UVA Health on Aug. 14.
Ibrahim, who directed the Robotic Heart Surgery Program at the University of Pennsylvania before joining UVA Health, said his staff trained for 6-9 months before beginning surgeries using robotic instruments.
Procedures in and around the heart traditionally require a large incision in the chest that can severely limit a person’s mobility for 7-10 weeks following surgery. Use of robotics alleviates the need for wide chest incision, in favor of smaller incisions not more than one millimeter wide, with the largest cut not exceeding a centimeter in width. The instruments are then inserted using these smaller incisions, and the surgical equipment, held in robotic arms, is controlled by a surgeon remotely at a console…