Mayo Clinic's robotic cardiac surgery program started in 2008 and is one of the longest running and most active programs in the U.S., with more than 1,000 successful robotic mitral valve repair procedures. Mayo is one of the highest-volume robotic surgery centers with a long track record of excellent outcomes.

Robotic cardiac procedure benefits: faster recovery, shorter hospital stays, lower complication rates including less time on ventilators, fewer episodes of atrial fibrillation, lowered opioid pain medication use and earlier return to work.

What's new? We're expanding our robotic mitral valve repair program to include performing other valve surgeries and procedures such as robotic aortic valve replacements and robot-assisted pacemaker placement.

Why our program stands out. Our dual-surgeon collaboration. Every procedure involves two dedicated cardiac surgeons using a robotic approach. This team approach offers expertise and safety and significantly enhances surgical outcomes.

What's next? Continue expanding our robotic approach to other heart conditions. We can safely apply it to other areas of the practice to achieve the same efficacy as in open-heart surgery while reducing complications. We'll perform more aortic valve replacements. And we'll be working on robotic myectomy soon.

Did you know? We've added surgeries we can do robotically and increased the number of patients who are candidates. Robotic surgery was once reserved for a highly selected patient group. But we've expanded our criteria for mitral valves, and we're also adding other procedures. Mayo Clinic's robotic surgeries include robotic mitral and tricuspid valve repairs or replacements, aortic valve replacements, cardiac tumor removal, atrial septal defect, patent foramen ovale closures, maze procedures, and epicardial pacemaker placement.

"Mayo Clinic is devoted to providing holistic care, ensuring every patient receives top-tier attention before their procedure, throughout their hospital stay and post-discharge. Entrust your patient’s care to Mayo Clinic and experience our unwavering standard of healthcare excellence."— Arman Arghami, M.D., M.P.H.

Mayo Clinic specializes in treating complex and rare conditions. Many patients with tricuspid valve disease exhibit multiple comorbidities, which can make surgery more complex. We manage those patients through surgery and recovery with excellent outcomes — that's what we do well.

At Mayo Clinic, our extensive experience in treating tricuspid valve disease covers a wide range of conditions, including functional tricuspid regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation associated with congenital heart disease, carcinoid heart disease, pacemaker-induced tricuspid regurgitation and tricuspid regurgitation associated with atrial fibrillation.

Patients benefit from the expert care of our dedicated and highly skilled multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, echocardiographers, surgeons, anesthesiologists and critical care physicians.

"The most important concept for providers to understand is that tricuspid valve disease is not something that you can let be. For years doctors felt comfortable monitoring patients with tricuspid valve disease, let them progressively deteriorate and only refer them at the end stages when there was evidence of organ dysfunction like kidney and liver disease. We can intervene earlier at Mayo, so early referral to a center with expertise is key for better outcomes and quality of life." — Juan A. Crestanello, M.D.

At Mayo Clinic's Aortic Center, our expert surgeons perform aortic surgery from aortic root to aortic arch, descending aorta and thoraco-abdominal aortic surgery, with excellent results. We specialize in patients with complex aortic pathologies including patients who had previous surgeries.

We also offer minimally invasive surgery even in complex cases including aortic valve repairs, valve-sparing surgeries, and aortic root, ascending aorta and arch replacements.

At Mayo, a team of world-class experts on patient disease performs successful surgeries in large numbers. At our multidisciplinary center, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, and cardiac and vascular surgeons work closely together to find the best answers and surgical solutions for patients. Doctors discuss every case at our weekly Aortic Center meetings, so patients receive a multidisciplinary evaluation.

Looking ahead. We'll be doing more minimally invasive valve-sparing surgeries, root replacements and all types of complex aortic surgery.

"At Mayo, we value everyone's opinion. We collaborate together to choose the best treatment plan for every patient, whether that is endovascular or open surgery, interventional vs surgical." — Malakh L. Shrestha, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.

A high-volume leader in transplant outcomes, Mayo is saving more lives with medical advances that expand the donor pool so that there is less wait time. Mayo Clinic's technology and efficiency allow the program to provide donors for our patients in need. New preservation techniques allow us to go across the continental U.S., which helps facilitate getting an organ for transplant. With organ perfusion systems like "heart in a box" technology, the heart can remain viable for many hours, allowing for long-distance heart transplantation. And the ex vivo lung perfusion system preserves the donated lung in a machine outside the body.

Our program recently increased in volume and intensity while still offering the most modern types of therapies in complex or rare cases. Our multiorgan transplant program includes heart-liver and heart-kidney transplants.

We're offering transplantation for highly sensitized people who may not be eligible elsewhere. For example, we can do a heart-liver transplant with the liver first to eliminate the antibodies for highly sensitized patients.

"With new heart perfusion technology, we have more aggressive clinical pathways than ever before for saving lives. We also have a personalized approach to take the patients through the transplant process. They'll get to know the coordinators, cardiologist, pulmonologist and surgeons well." — Mauricio A. Villavicencio Theoduloz, M.D.

Mayo Clinic is one of the largest and most experienced congenital heart disease centers in the United States. This program offers a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to complicated problems in children and adult patients with congenital heart disease. Mayo Clinic Children's Center, designated a Level 1 children's surgery center by the American College of Surgeons, takes care of the tiniest patients with heart defects from birth through adulthood. Mayo Clinic's congenital heart program has managed complex heart disease cases for more than 65 years. We offer comprehensive clinical services to diagnose and treat the most difficult congenital and acquired heart disease cases in infants, children and adults.

The multidisciplinary experts include faculty from both pediatric and adult practices in surgery, cardiology, imaging, critical care, electrophysiology and primary care. This unique collaboration separates this center from other centers because the children's hospital is within an adult hospital. The collaboration of these experts across all age groups is our resource-intensive specialty and a natural part of our culture.

These complex medical problems often require many other subspecialty areas (renal, liver, pulmonary, and more), and the Mayo Clinic Model of Care facilitates streamlined consultations and treatment strategies that are typically coordinated over just a few days.

Did you know?

• Mayo Clinic is designated a Center of Excellence by the Adult Congenital Heart Association.
• Since 2008, at least one Mayo faculty member has been a member of the writing committee for the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology guidelines.
• Mayo published more papers on adult congenital heart disease than any other institution in the United States. Those papers are frequently the most cited papers in the specialty.

"The strength of our program is due to the daily interactions of multidisciplinary care between specialists from both the pediatric and adult cardiovascular service lines." — Joseph A. Dearani, M.D.

When patients need cardiac surgical intervention, but their heart conditions are highly complex, Mayo's multidisciplinary team of surgical specialists are ready to step in to achieve outstanding outcomes. Surgery specialists carefully consider each case, even when no viable options seem possible.

Patients who have had multiple previous operations or those who have complex heart disease that requires extensive surgery are limited in how they may tolerate surgery. At Mayo, we're here to take care of those patients of all ages and get them through surgery successfully. We strive to help patients who have not found solutions, and we offer them hope and healing.

Complexity may stem from multiple previous heart operations, prior mediastinal radiation exposure, extensive surgeries, underlying health issues, limited physiological reserve or compromised cardiac function.

Your patients have options. Mayo cardiac surgeons can help.

Let our cardiac surgery specialists evaluate your patients' clinical needs and offer surgical treatments.

"Reentry of the chest is complex and requires the patience to protect the cardiac structures and attention to detail by the whole surgical team. Our expertise performing these increasingly difficult procedures over the course of years allows us to do more to help patients." — Juan A. Crestanello, M.D.

Mayo Clinic's cardiovascular surgery research program provides patients with innovative therapies.

Mayo's research program is unique because not only are we looking at clinical outcomes of patients with heart disease, but we're also developing an understanding of the underlying molecular causes. This allows us to be at the forefront of developing novel therapies to combat disease and improve patient care.

Our research efforts are supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), private foundations, industry collaborations and philanthropic donors. In the past year, our team published 287 journal articles and gave presentations at national meetings. Our research is supported by NIH funding totaling over $5 million, as well as grant awards from the Thoracic Surgery Foundation, American Association for Thoracic Surgery and 15 sponsored research awards.

Mayo cardiovascular surgery research covers multiple areas including:

• Clinical patient outcomes research.
• Examining surgical diseases at a molecular level for translation of cutting-edge science to the bedside.
• Research on patient care delivery processes that improve the patient experience.

Mayo physicians are constantly innovating and improving. We're also educating and developing the next generation of academic leaders by working in collaboration with the Mayo surgical training programs and Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

"We're more than just doctors seeing patients, performing surgeries and getting superb results. We're key leaders in the medical profession helping to direct the future of medicine." — Paul C. Tang, M.D., Ph.D.