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PDA 11 5/27/03 8:53 AM Page 220
PDA Robotics
Argenziano is also principal investigator of several Food and Drug
Administration-sanctioned trials of robotic cardiac surgery including
one in which it is used for closed-chest coronary artery bypass graft
surgery (CABG). In early 2002, the Columbia team performed the first
totally endoscopic CABG in the United States.
“We have wonderful surgical cures for heart disease, in that they’re
very effective and long-lasting,” Oz says. “However, they’re also very
traumatic. So, we’re evaluating a technology that might provide us
with the same wonderful results without the trauma.”

Several facilities nationwide offer the da Vinci technology, and
researchers at approximately four other centers have been specifically
trained to perform ASD closure, the researchers say.

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