London doctors have performed the first fully robotic heart operations in Britain, using a system that allows surgeons to operate remotely or on autopilot. The £2 million lab at the Heart Hospital near Regent's Park was funded by the British Heart Foundation after explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes raised £1.5 million attempting to climb Everest.
The system uses two giant magnets to guide tiny probes through the patient's veins, correcting irregular heartbeats or opening blocked arteries. Traditionally, procedures like catheter ablation and angioplasty require doctors to manually push wires through arteries for hours. With the new system, the cardiologist sits at a console outside the operating theatre, using a joystick or mouse to guide the magnets, or preprogramming the computer for automatic operation.
Electrophysiologist Dr Martin Lowe said: "This is the first fully robotic system to allow life-saving procedures, it is extremely exciting and means we are treating the patient more effectively. The patient is a bit like a car going through an automatic assembly line."
Sarah Johnson, 24, a mother of three from Enfield, was one of the first to undergo the surgery last week. She had a catheter ablation to treat ventricular tachycardia, a fast heart rhythm. The same procedure was carried out by hand on Tony Blair in 2004. Mrs Johnson watched on screen as the wires cauterised the malfunctioning muscle, with every aspect on autopilot except for a tap on the mouse to instruct the wires to burn tissue. She said: "You can feel the probes in your body as you are seeing them on the X-ray, it is very strange but I wasn't worried."
