Nanotechnology: Potential applications in cardiothoracic surgery

Within the last several years dramatic changes have occurred in the field of cardiothoracic surgery permitting new and evolving technologies to be applied to the benefit of patients. One of these is the field of less invasive heart surgery. The principle causes of morbidity and mortality in conventional open heart surgery are related to the use of the heart/lung bypass machine and the sternal splitting incision. In response to this problem surgeons developed the MIDCAB or minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass operation. The da Vinci™ computer-enhanced surgical robotic system has been used at the Ohio State University Medical Center to harvest the internal mammary artery from patients who were undergoing MIDCAB. The same system can be also applied to introduce novel biomedical engineering nanotechnology. In this article we described the nature and use for this innovative technology that undoubtedly will have dramatic impact on the future of cardiac patients and heart care.