{"id":5450,"date":"2025-04-21T18:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=5450"},"modified":"2025-04-23T13:23:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T13:23:32","slug":"robotic-heart-surgery-conversion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/robotic-heart-surgery-conversion\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Robotic Heart Surgery Conversion from Minimally-Invasive to Sternotomy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/robotic-mitral-valve-surgery\">Minimally-invasive robotic surgery<\/a> for heart valve repair and replacement can have significant benefits compared with conventional sternotomy, including less pain, shorter hospital stays, and a faster recovery.<\/p>\n<p>It is important for patients to remember that robotic surgery is an open-heart procedure in which the surgeon uses very small ports to access and treat the defective valve through the ribs. While robotic approaches are safe and effective, there are risks and complications such as uncontrolled bleeding which may cause the surgeon to open the patient&#8217;s chest using a sternotomy.<\/p>\n<p>We received a patient question on this topic from Bethany, who asked, \u201cAfter a robot-assisted valve surgery starts, can excessive bleeding cause the robotic surgery to be aborted and a sternotomy approach be implemented?\u201d To answer Bethany\u2019s question, we asked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Kevin-Hodges-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Kevin Hodges<\/a>, a leading minimally invasive surgeon specializing in robotic mitral valve repair at the Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fIKnRlNBYJU?rel=0?si=JASDnxPDFz-RfA1U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>About Converting from Minimally Invasive to a Sternotomy During Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Here are key learnings shared by Dr. Kevin Hodges:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surgeons discuss the possibility of the scenario for conversion prior to surgery. \u201cThis is a great question,\u201d said Dr. Hodges. \u201cIt\u2019s something we talk about every single time we see a patient in the clinic, and the answer is that the scenario is extremely uncommon. We tell patients it\u2019s a less than one percent chance of changing from a robotic approach to a sternotomy or a conventional approach.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/da_vinci_robot_heart-valve.jpg\" alt=\"Da Vinci Surgical Robot\" width=\"312\" height=\"360\" \/>Da Vinci Heart Surgery Robot (Intuitive Surgical)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Safety and good long-term outcomes are priorities. Dr. Hodges explained, \u201cThe reality is that our priorities are to, number one, get a really good mitral valve repair that\u2019s going to last the patient for the rest of their life. Number two is to do that safely and have them leave the hospital without complications. So, if a scenario were to arise during surgery, for instance, bleeding that we couldn\u2019t control with a robotic approach, we would change to a conventional approach or sternotomy of that\u2019s what will keep the patient safe.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5454 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/dr-hodges-robotic-priorities.jpg\" alt=\"Priorities during Robotic Mitral Valve Surgery\" width=\"650\" height=\"362\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Hodges and Northwestern Medicine!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of all the patients in our community, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Kevin-Hodges-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Kevin Hodges<\/a> for taking the time to share his clinical experiences and research with us.\u00a0 We also need to thank Northwestern Medicine for taking such great care of patients with heart valve disease!<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/videos\/5-warning-signs\">Video: The \u201c5 Warning Signs\u201d You May Need Heart Valve Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2025\/02\/15\/6-expert-tips-webinar\/\">Download the free e-book: 6 Expert Tips for Heart Valve Patients<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2024\/04\/17\/43-questions-answered\/\">Get the answer to 43 Patient Questions from Dr. Kevin Hodges<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin,<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our patient community, we have provided a written transcript of our interview with Dr. Hodges below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"class_list":["post-5450","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-mitral-valve-repair"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5450"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5525,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5450\/revisions\/5525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}