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Leading U.S. Heart Surgeon to Urge Doctors at International Conference to Embrace Robotic Surgery

PHILADELPHIA, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Francis Sutter, one of five leaders in the United States in minimally-invasive robotic assisted beating heart coronary bypass surgery has accepted an invitation to speak at the 2010 World Congress of Cardiology and World Heart Federation in Beijing on the topic of robotic heart surgery. Dr. Sutter will tell an audience of his peers on Saturday, June 19th that recovering from heart surgery is hard enough for patients and the world's doctors have a responsibility to learn new techniques that offer patients surgical options making patient recovery and return to everyday activities as easy as possible.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100609/PH18050 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100609/PH18050 )

"Unfortunately, more than 99-percent of bypass operations in this country are still performed by cracking the patient's chest open, resulting in unnecessary levels of pain and discomfort and requiring a lengthy recovery time," said Sutter. "My patients live 24/7 lives. Many of them don't have the luxury of slowing down, even for open-heart surgery. I can have them out of the operating room and back to the board room, or other pursuits, in about two weeks; that's one-third of the time it takes for traditional bypass surgery."

The annual World Congress of Cardiology and World Heart Federation is one of the largest meetings held focusing on cardiovascular disease and welcomes thousands of cardiologists and healthcare professionals from over 45 countries.

Dr. Sutter, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Main Line Health, a premiere hospital network in Philadelphia, has adopted this new technology and pioneers the procedure for the majority of his heart surgeries with the robotic-assisted da Vinci Surgical System, which dramatically decreases patient recovery time, minimizes the pain and reduces the risk of infection and stroke.

Sutter has performed close to 600 surgical robotic-assisted procedures since October 2005. He is the busiest surgeon in Pennsylvania utilizing this method and consistently has the best patient outcomes of any surgeon as recognized in the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) public report card. Recently, in May of 2010, Dr. Sutter was voted by his peers onto Philadelphia Magazines prestigious 'Top Docs' list.

Sutter advises all patients facing coronary bypass surgery to ask questions and explore their options. And, most importantly, to make sure to choose a surgeon who has performed hundreds of robot assisted heart surgeries - not just several. Experience is the number-one factor a person should consider in a surgeon.

About Dr. Francis Sutter

Dr. Francis Sutter is the Main Line Health System Section Chief of Cardiac Surgery as well as the Campus Division Chief at Lankenau Hospital. He is considered a leader in the nation with robotic revascularization. His technique is representative of a new way of thinking for heart surgery. This collaborative approach with surgeon and cardiologist is a hybrid technique that combines traditional heart surgery methods with newer, robotic techniques and coronary stents for overall success.

CONTACT: Rebecca Catts, +1-717-232-5554, rcatts@neimangroup.com

SOURCE Lankenau Hospital