For the first time in U.S. history, a human heart was transplanted without opening the chest. No rib spreaders. No saw. No cracked sternum. The team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center used a robotic system to remove and replace a failing heart through small incisions below the diaphragm. The patient walked out a month later. No complications. No infections. No drama.
The operation took place in March 2025. The patient was a 45-year-old man who had been hospitalized since November 2024 with advanced heart failure. He was on multiple mechanical support devices. Traditional surgery would have meant cutting through the breastbone, exposing him to high infection risk and a long recovery. Instead, Dr. Kenneth Liao and his team used the da Vinci Xi robotic system to navigate through the preperitoneal space. The diseased heart came out. The donor heart went in. The chest wall stayed intact.
The benefits are not theoretical. Preserving the chest wall reduces blood loss, lowers the need for transfusions, and slashes the risk of infection. That matters even more for transplant patients on immunosuppressants. The robotic approach also improves respiratory function and speeds up mobility. The patient was discharged in April. No setbacks. No readmissions.
This was not a one-off stunt. It was a proof of concept. The same robotic system is already used in prostate, kidney, and gynecological surgeries. Now it’s in the heart room. The implications are massive. Fewer complications. Shorter hospital stays. Lower costs. Better outcomes. The surgical team says this is just the start.
The first fully robotic heart transplant in the world happened in Saudi Arabia in 2024. That patient was 16. The U.S. case is the first adult transplant done entirely robotically without opening the chest. The bar has moved. The standard is shifting.
The robot doesn’t replace the surgeon. It extends the surgeon’s reach. It shrinks the trauma. It tightens the margin for error. And it just made one of the most invasive procedures in medicine a little less brutal.
Sources
https://neurosciencenews.com/robotic-heart-transplant-29354/