An Indian Surgeon Performed The First Long-Distance Heart Surgery

A series of five PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) procedures were recently performed by an Indian surgeon on patients who were 20 miles away. The event marks the first-ever long-distance heart surgery.

The patients were suffering from atherosclerosis, where there is plaque building up in the human’s blood vessels, restricting blood flow. With this special procedure, a small instrument known as a stent was inserted by the CorPath GRX robot to help open up the heart’s blood vessels.

The robot was actually a product of a company called Corindus. The paper could be found in EClinicalMedicine. The surgery which was carried out is a part of telemedicine.

Telemedicine, by combining robotics, communications, and mixed reality, allows medical experts to reach patients in remote areas. Healthcare could soon be decentralized to cope with doctor and nurse shortages.

The groundbreaking procedure was carried out by Dr. Tejas Patel, Ahmedabad Apex Heart Institute’s Chairman and Chief Interventional Cardiologist. To carry out the procedure, the team set up an identical remote workstation in Patel’s location.

A high-speed internet connection helped connect the station to the robot. In the operating room, there were cameras installed so that Patel could have additional views.

In a press statement, Corindus Vascular Robotics’ President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Toland, said that remote procedures could help transform the way we deliver care in treating critical and time-sensitive diseases like stroke and heart attack.

He continued,

Toland concluded by saying that although robotic procedures’ development is still in the early stages, we are right on track to provide patients with more access to care, as well as reducing the time needed to receive treatment.

The telemedicine field is not something new. Back in 1999, the Ames Research Center of NASA set up one of the first virtual clinics to offer astronauts who were on the International Space Station medical care.

Telemedicine was also used by the U.S. military to treat injured soldiers on faraway battlefields.