7 Healthcast: Robotic heart surgery

If this is what you picture when you hear the word 'robot'-- think again.

Boston medical Center has a robot of a different kind, and this one is performing heart surgery!

Dr. Robert Poston, Boston Medical Center
"Robot surgery is designed to try to get to areas of the chest that you wouldn't be able to get to without getting the standard open incision."

Heart surgeon Dr. Robert Poston controls all the surgical instruments robotically.

He navigates the inside of the heart with the help of a small camera.

By using the robot, doctors only have to make three small incisions, not the typical large incision down the center of the chest.

Dr. Robert Poston, Boston Medical Center
"We have to go through some muscles when we go through the left chest, but it's not a bone incision."

Doctors say smaller incisions mean less risk for infection and a faster recovery

When Patrick Brady of Quincy found out he needed a double bypass- he opted for this minimally invasive approach.

Patrick Brady, had robot-assisted heart surgery
"There would be no cracking of the ribs, there'd be no stopping of the heart, there'd be no taking veins out of the legs but it would be done by a robot."

Patrick says he made the right choice, and just six days after successful surgery, he got to go home.

Patrick Brady, had robot-assisted heart surgery
 "A week later I called him and asked him 'When can i drive a car' and he said, 'You could have driven home from the hospital.' So that's the type of surgery it was so it was, I can't say enough for it."

This type of operation is for everyone who needs heart surgery. If you need more than one or two bypasses, it's more difficult to do through the small incisions so you may have to opt for the traditional approach.

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