Post by Shriya Karlapudi

1 in 5 heart surgery patients will need a second operation. This means reopening the chest. Big scar, bigger risk. What if robots could change that? Repeat cardiac surgery is technically challenging due to dense scar tissue, distorted anatomy, higher rates of bleeding and infection. For decades, surgeons had no real choice but to reopen the chest. Until now. Robotic surgery offers a minimally invasive alternative. But the evidence supporting it has lagged behind the practice. In our systematic review and meta-analysis (the first of its kind), we found that robotic redo cardiac surgery achieved: 🤖 In-hospital mortality: just 2% ⏱️ Operative time nearly halved: 176 mins vs 321 mins 🏥 ICU stay cut from 5 days to 3 days ❤️ Freedom from mitral regurgitation: 100% No chest reopening. Minimally invasive. Outcomes that match, or exceed, the traditional approach. The bottom line: Redo cardiac surgery is entering the robotic era. I'm honoured to have been awarded 2nd Prize National Oral Presentation for this work at the London Medical Schools Research Conference. Always grateful to my supervisor Prof Kawal Rhode for supporting my interest in academic medicine. #CardiacSurgery #RoboticSurgery #MedicalResearch #AcademicMedicine #MedStudent #Innovation #MinimallyInvasive King's College London King's Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences King's Health Partners KCL Clinical & Academic Research Society Karanjot Chhatwal Sammy Arab Asma Sadoun