Background and Objective: Robotic coronary artery bypass surgery is an established procedure for treatment of coronary artery disease. The goal of this manuscript is to provide an overview on how to build a successful robotic coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery program and analyze its learning curve. Methods: We performed a narrative review of the current medical literature comparing the robotic CABG survival rate. English literature published by January 30th, 2021 were searched in PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, SciELO, LILACS, CCTR/CENTRAL and Google Scholar. Key Content and Findings: The learning curve of robotic CABG is a stepwise process ranging from proficiency in off-pump CABG to multi-vessel robotic totally endoscopic CABG. Robotic CABG creates a unique setting where all the team members (including surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses) face the technical and logistic challenges of a new procedure, relying on the team assistance and medical knowledge. A careful selection of the team based on their experience and keen interest in the program is highly advisable. Team synergy and attention to details are key to the program success. It is recommended that every team member had previous training in the operating room with the robotic platform either on cadavers or animals. A synergistic collaboration among surgeon, hospital administration, and chief of the department through defining reasons are keys for developing a successful robotic surgical program and setting future goals for the team and the department. In addition, the ideal pathway of a successful trainee for patient selection consists of: (I) patient with stable coronary artery disease; (II) double vessels disease with a non-anterior descending artery (LAD) target that can be treated with stent; (III) robotic CABG left internal thoracic artery (LITA) to LAD followed by stenting of the non-LAD territory with angiographic confirmation of LITA to LAD patency; (IV) adding a second internal thoracic artery (ITA) should be evaluated carefully and after performing at least 75/100 cases of single LITA to LAD. In addition, literature review found 46 studies and 9,228 patients were included. Conclusions: Robotic CABG is a constantly evolving field and new programs are constantly built. Bearing in mind the benefits of the procedure, a stepwise growing of the program is essential in becoming a leader in the field.
Coronary artery disease remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The impact of ventricular arrhythmias and impaired cardiac vagal activity on coronary events is one of the most relevant prognostic factors, despite little research being conducted in clinical practice. A simple and cost-effective way to analyze cardiac autonomic regulation is through the heart rate turbulence (HRT) method. Studies have shown that altered HRT, which indicates reduction in the vagal cardiac activity, can identify patients who are at a higher risk of sudden death. Thus, aspects related to the definition, pathophysiological mechanism, conditions that alter the HRT behavior, and the main studies that analyzed the prognostic importance of HRT in patients with ischemic disease were discussed in this review. HRT analysis was proven to be a simple and cost-effective way to assess cardiac autonomic dysfunction by providing complementary information to classic parameters, such as the assessment of ventricular function.
Background Since the risk of neurological injury and mortality can be mitigated with the appropriate choice of established brain protection strategies, we performed a meta-analysis of studies reporting cerebral perfusion strategy outcomes. Our focus was on surgeries that can be performed through a minimally-invasive approach, to support the decision-making process of adopting surgeons. Methods We searched the Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), Medical literature analysis and retrieval system online (MEDLINE), and Cochrane databases, as well as ClinicalTrials.gov, Google Scholar, and the reference lists of relevant articles for studies reporting early mortality and/or stroke outcomes of both retrograde cerebral perfusion (RCP) and antegrade cerebral perfusion (ACP) strategies. The principal summary measures were odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p values (statistically significant when <0.05). The pooled ORs were combined across studies that met the eligibility criteria. Results We identified and included seventeen eligible studies with a total of 19,365 patients undergoing ascending aorta and arch surgery from 2008-2019 by means of ACP (a total of 10,473 patients) or RCP (a total of 8,892 patients). Random effect model analyses found no increase in mortality (OR=1.03, 95%CI:0.80-1.32) or stroke (OR=1.04, 95%CI:0.81-1.32) associated RCP when compared to ACP (p>0.05). Conclusion In ascending aorta and arch surgery, requiring cerebral protection, ACP and RCP have similar rates of early mortality and stroke. While optimal application of cerebral protection strategies is both patient and surgeon specific, surgeons can comfortably adopt RCP in minimally invasive cases after accounting for factors that determine the outcomes of aortic surgery adequately.
To evaluate whether there is any difference on the results of patients treated with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the setting of ischemic heart failure (HF).