Heart

Clay Barritt had surgery at Regions Hospital on Wednesday to repair a valve in his heart. The 60-year-old from Turtle Lake, Wis., is not unlike the thousands of people in the area who have procedures like this every year. But what's different about Barritt is that he had a robot assist in his surgery -- a medical first in Minnesota.

U.S. scientists have created a robotic device that can be inserted onto a heart using minimally invasive surgery to deliver medical treatment.
Resembling a robotic caterpillar, the device developed by Cameron Riviere and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University can crawl across the surface of a beating heart, delivering drugs or attaching medical devices.

The first robotic heart operation was performed in the Czech Republic in Prague's Na Homolce hospital this week, hospital spokeswoman Jitka Kalouskova told CTK today.

Six patients suffering from heart failure underwent the unique operation using robotic systems.