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On September 10, 2024, a surgical team from the ����TV Langone Transplant Institute performed the first fully robotic lung transplant in the United States, a milestone in surgical innovation for lung transplant surgery.

Just one month later, on October 22, ����TV Langone Health made medical history again, completing the world’s first fully robotic double lung transplant. The seven-hour procedure, a breakthrough in both robotic surgery and minimally invasive patient care, positioned the health system, which performs more than 2,000 robot-assisted surgeries each year, as the new global leader in robotic transplant surgery.

A surgical team led by cardiothoracic surgeon Stephanie H. Chang, MD, surgical director of ����TV Langone’s Lung Transplant Program, transplanted both lungs of a deceased donor into Cheryl Mehrkar, a 57-year-old woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), just four days after the patient was placed on the lung transplant wait list. The procedure was performed using the da Vinci Xi robotic system, with small incisions made between the ribs to remove the lungs, prepare the surgical site, and implant the new lungs. The smaller incisions made possible by robotic lung transplant surgery are expected to speed up the patient’s healing and shorten hospital stays following the complex procedure. Dr. Chang was assisted by cardiothoracic surgeons Travis C. Geraci, MD, and Eugene A. Grossi, MD, the Stephen B. Colvin, MD, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and supported by Luis F. Angel, MD, medical director of lung transplantation.

“By using these robotic systems, we aim to reduce the impact this major surgery has on patients, limit their postoperative pain, and give them the best possible outcome,” says Dr. Chang. “It couldn’t happen without an institution dedicated to moving transplantation forward.”

Mehrkar, who inherited a genetic predisposition to lung disease, was diagnosed with COPD in 2010; her condition worsened after a bout with COVID-19 in 2022. Throughout her life, she has been an avid adventurer, exploring the undersea world as a scuba divemaster, becoming a devoted motorcyclist, and earning a black belt in karate with her husband, Shahin.

Mehrkar was discharged on November 21 and hopes to return to the activities she loves, including being a volunteer emergency medical technician with a local fire department in Dutchess County, New York.

“I’m so grateful to the donor and their family for giving me another chance at life,” says Mehrkar. “For a long time, I was told I wasn’t sick enough for a transplant. The team at ����TV Langone centered my quality of life as a priority, and I’m so grateful to the doctors and nurses there for giving me hope.”

The ����TV Langone Transplant Institute performed 76 lung transplants in 2023 and was rated best in the nation for one-year lung survival after transplant (meaning the organ isn’t rejected and doesn’t become dysfunctional) and for getting patients off the waitlist the fastest by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a national quality tracker. Both metrics are consistent with ����TV Langone’s record of maintaining the lowest mortality rates of any academic medical center in the nation, as measured by Vizient Inc., the nation’s leading healthcare performance-improvement organization. “Our Transplant Institute team pushes the field forward to better serve our patients and deliver the lifesaving care they need with the best patient experience,” says Robert Montgomery, MD, PhD, the H. Leon Pachter, MD, Professor of Surgery, chair of the , and director of the ����TV Langone Transplant Institute.

“This latest innovation is a watershed moment in lung transplantation surgery worldwide,” says Ralph S. Mosca, MD, the Henry H. Arnhold Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery and director of the Pediatric Congenital Heart Program at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at ����TV Langone. “It’s just the beginning of a new era in patient care.”