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Da Vinci Cardiac Surgery Enters a New Era

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, affecting an estimated 19.8 million people each year—and for many of those who need surgery, treatment still means opening the chest. Despite advances in less invasive therapies, many cardiac procedures still require a sternotomy, a large incision associated with longer recovery compared with minimally invasive approaches.¹

Robotic-assisted cardiac surgery using the da Vinci system has long offered a different path. But for much of its history, the broader conditions needed to support it at scale— trained care teams, infrastructure, and more standardized clinical pathways—made scaling challenging.

In a recent conversation on the DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Darla Hutton, Intuitive’s Global Vice President of Cardiac Surgery, reflected on what’s changed and why the field is entering a different phase now.

The early years of robotic cardiac surgery

Intuitive’s early cardiac ambitions were real, Hutton said, but the surrounding conditions weren’t ready. “The technology was right. The infrastructure, the timing, the willingness for people to adopt was not.”

Cardiac is also among the most complex procedures performed in an operating room, requiring surgeons, anesthesiologists and perfusionists to work in close coordination. Training a surgeon to use the technology was one part of the equation, but getting the whole team trained was another: “We knew how to train the surgeon [to operate the da Vinci system], but we didn’t really know how to train the whole team.”

What’s different today

The FDA’s January 2026 clearance of the da Vinci 5 system for certain cardiac procedures—including mitral valve repair and IMA mobilization for cardiac revascularization—marks another inflection point.

With 10,000x the computing power of previous generations, da Vinci 5 enables a move beyond the one or two historically targeted procedures toward a broader range of cardiac applications.

The broader clinical community has moved as well. "We're not doing this alone," Hutton said. "We're doing this with worldwide advisory groups and the societies helping us understand how to do this.”

Intuitive's training capabilities have also grown considerably. Today, there are more than 100,000 da Vinci-trained surgeons around the world, and more than 140,000 robotic-assisted cardiac procedures have been performed using da Vinci systems across 51 countries. That depth matters, because success now depends as much on how teams are prepared and supported as on the technology itself.

Building programs that last

The focus now is on how hospitals and care teams can build and sustain da Vinci-assisted cardiac surgery programs—supported by Intuitive’s training, technology and clinical resources.

For Hutton, that shift in mindset is as important as any single technical advance. “It’s not a matter of if anymore, it’s a matter of how we do this—and how we do it with patient safety in mind.”

That work is personal for her. She began her career on heart transplant and cardiac surgery floors at Tampa General, spent nearly two decades at Intuitive working across urology, gynecology, and global commercial operations, and was asked to lead the cardiac effort in late 2024—returning, in a sense, to where she started.

Hear the full conversation on the DeviceTalks podcast—listen now.