PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – New technology is opening the doors of possibility to cardiothoracic surgeons and their patients and starting this fall, the use of robotics will allow doctors at Temple University Hospital to perform intricate heart surgeries without having to open a patient’s chest.

When you think of a robot, you think “inflexible device” but Dr. Sloane Guy, chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Temple University Hospital says the opposite is true, “I have a regular hemostat in my hand. It’s an instrument too, but I have complete control. It’s not going to go fly around the room on its own. The robot is exactly the same. I have absolute control over those arms. Everything I do at the console will happen inside the patient.”

Four small incisions are made in the patient’s chest where the probes to the robot are placed. What procedures will Dr. Guy perform with this technology?

“Mitral valve repair and sometimes replacement, remove tumors, repair the tricuspid valve.”

Even do bypass surgery. The O.R. is equipped with machines, each with a set of arms with full range of motion to guide the robot inside the patient. It’s a team effort to perform the intricate surgery.

Dr. Guy allowed me to assist on a simulated patient, “There you go. See now you’re doing it! Yes!”

For more information, visit RoboticHeartSurgeon.com.

Reported by Michelle Durham, KYW Newsradio 1060