NASHVILLE SURGEONS FIRST IN STATE TO PERFORM ENDOSCOPIC BYPASS SURGERY WITHOUT STOPPING THE HEART

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (September 21, 2004) – With the help of a robotic surgical system called “daVinci,” cardiac surgeons at Centennial Medical Center have become among the first in the nation to perform coronary artery bypass surgery endoscopically without splitting the breastbone and stopping the heart, the traditional approach to the surgery.

Yesterday, Drs. Louis Brunsting and Robert Binford successfully operated on a 66-year-old Nashvillian conducting the entire procedure through ports.

 “With half a million Americans expected to need bypass surgery this year, this accomplishment is important,” said surgeon Louis Brunsting. “It means patients will have less scarring, less pain and much faster recovery times.”

“For patients who undergo the procedure with the robot scope system, it is possible that they will be home in one to three days post op and returning to normal activity one to two weeks,” continued surgeon Robert Binford, Brunsting’s partner in pioneering the new technique.

The daVinci system allows the surgeon to operate through small incisions while seated at a console that displays 3-D images of the surgical field through a high-powered endoscopic camera inside the patient.  As the surgeon grasps the daVinci’s master controls below the display, any movements of his hands, wrists and fingers are replicated in real-time by tiny surgical instruments inside the patient.

Since Centennial started using the daVinci two years ago, Brunsting and Binford have performed more than 120 cardiac-related surgeries robotically, making the robotic program at Centennial among the top five in the nation.

Centennial Medical Center is one of only two hospitals in the United States operating three daVinci surgical systems, making it the 8th busiest program in the U.S. and one of a few authorized training centers for robotic heart surgery in the country. 
The robot’s maker, Intuitive Surgical, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., has installed just over 200 daVinci systems worldwide.  The daVinci surgical system, which was approved earlier this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for bypass surgery, has been used extensively for gall bladder, prostate and reflux disease surgeries since it went on the market in 2000.

Centennial Medical Center, part of TriStar Health System, is a 615-bed tertiary facility that has been accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Centennial Medical Center has been recognized as one of the country's 100 Top Hospitals in cardiovascular medicine, stroke service, orthopedics, and breast cancer management. For more information, call TriStar Medline at 615-342-1919 or 800-242-5662.