Robot Performs First Long-Distance Heart Surgery

A surgeon in India has successfully performed the first remote heart surgery on a patient who was lying on an operating table 20 miles away. During the procedure, the CorPath GRX robot--developed by a company called Corindus--inserted a small instrument called a stent in order to open blood vessels in the heart, according to a paper published in EClinicalMedicine. The operation, called percutaneous coronary intervention, is often performed in patients who have a condition called atherosclerosis, where plaque builds up in the blood vessels, restricting blood flow. The long-distance procedure was performed by Dr. Tejas Patel of the Apex Heart Institute in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. "I am honored to have been a part of this medical milestone," Patel told ZDNet.