A cardiothoracic surgeon at USA Health recently performed a surgical procedure to seal off the left atrial appendage in a patient’s heart with a clip — the first such procedure in the area to be performed robotically.
The surgeon, Parker Mullen, M.D., said the precision of robot-assisted surgery using the da Vinci Xi enabled him and his team at USA Health Providence Hospital to address the patient’s atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm disorder that could not be treated with more traditional methods because of the patient’s health history.
“This patient presented a real challenge for other minimally invasive options given their prior heart surgery. Performing this procedure robotically allowed us to operate with an exceptional level of precision while minimizing the impact on the patient,” said Mullen, who also serves as an assistant professor of surgery at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama.
In the operating room, a surgeon controls the da Vinci Xi robot’s four tiny instruments from a console using magnified views of the surgery site. The benefits of robotic surgery include a shortened hospital stay, less blood loss, reduced complications and less post-operative pain.
USA Health, which has six da Vinci Xi robots and one da Vinci SP robot, launched its robotic thoracic surgery program in December 2025. “Our goal is to be the academic referral center for the region for thoracic procedures,” Mullen said.
The da Vinci robots have also been used in abdominal hernia, esophageal, gastrointestinal, colonic, hiatal hernia, cancer, urologic and gynecologic surgeries across the health system.