Saint Michael’s Medical Center Performs Landmark 100th Robotic Heart Procedure

NEWARK, N. J. (August 20, 2009) –– Saint Michael’s Medical Center has announced that surgeons at the hospital’s Heart and Vascular Institute have successfully performed their 100th coronary artery bypass graft procedure (CABG) using the da Vinci robotic surgery system.

The da Vinci Surgical System puts surgeons at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform that uses laparoscopic technology, enabling them to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions with unmatched precision.

CABG is a procedure in which arteries or veins harvested from other locations in a patient’s body are grafted to the coronary arteries, improving blood supply to the heart muscle. The hospital’s milestone 100th procedure was performed by Dr. Nilesh Patel, the hospital’s chief of Minimally Invasive Robotic Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Patel, who performed the procedure for several years before joining Saint Michael's in 2005, noted that there were no mortalities in the hospital's 100 robotic CABG cases.

“The benefits of surgery with the da Vinci robotic system are numerous,” said Dr. Patel. “This minimally invasive approach results in better outcomes, less pain and scarring, and faster recovery times. There is also a dramatically reduced risk of infection and blood loss, and patients are typically out of the hospital and able to resume normal activities in a fraction of the time associated with traditional, more invasive surgical approaches.”

More information about the da Vinci robotic surgery system at Saint Michael’s Medical Center is available online, at www.smmcnj.org.

Established by the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1867, Saint Michael's Medical Center is a 357-bed regional tertiary-care, teaching and research center in the heart of Newark's business and educational district. Saint Michael's Medical Center is a member of Catholic Health East (CHE). Based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, Catholic Health East is one of the nation's largest nonprofit health systems, with 34 hospitals in 11 states..