Apex Heart Institute in Ahmedabad has introduced vascular robotic technology for coronary intervention. This has been termed as a monumental development in coronary intervention history of India.

A vascular robotic system developed by US-based Corindus has been brought to India for the first time.

Under the leadership of Chairman and Chief Interventional Cardiologist Dr Tejas Patel, Apex Heart has successfully conducted over 50 angioplasty surgeries since a month of commercial installation of CorPath GRX.

The USFDA-approved robotic technology for coronary angioplasty or stenting provides accuracy of sub-1 mm, against the maximum possible 5-10 mm in the case of humans. 

The system costs about $1.5 million, and has in-built artificial intelligence, which helps cardiologists take sound clinical judgments.

Robotic surgery for heart has been the latest entrant, as against robotic surgeries for other body parts. Unlike them, the heart has constant movement, therefore it took engineers and researchers in the US 12 years to perfect this technology.