For the first time in the U.S., surgeons have performed a fully robotic heart transplant—without opening the chest or cutting the breastbone. The surgery took place at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, on a 45-year-old man with advanced heart failure. Using a surgical robot, the team made small incisions through the preperitoneal space, avoiding a chest incision to remove the damaged heart and implant a donor heart. This approach reduced the trauma of traditional open-chest surgery, minimizing blood loss, infection risk, and recovery time. Led by Dr. Kenneth Liao, the team’s innovative method helped the patient recover smoothly. He was discharged a month later with no complications. #RoboticSurgery #HeartTransplant #science #HoustonMedical