UChicago Medicine surgery team completes 500th cardiac robotic procedure [Video]

The University of Chicago Medicine’s robotic surgery team, led by Husam H. Balkhy, MD, hit a milestone last month when they treated their 500th patient to repair a heart valve and an irregular heartbeat using a robotic totally endoscopic approach. This milestone comes just over 3 and a half years after Balkhy was recruited to join the faculty at UChicago Medicine.

Jennifer Scott, 51, of Rogers Park, was discharged on April 26, two days after Balkhy repaired Scott’s mitral valve, which was causing a severe leak and was associated with atrial fibrillation. Scott expects to return back to work soon.

Using the da Vinci surgical robot system, Balkhy and his team performed the complex valve repair and ablation procedure through small holes in the right side of Scott’s chest (the largest being only 20 mm). Without the robotic surgery option, surgeons would have …