In the early years of 2000, a growing enthusiasm toward robotic and minimally invasive techniques became more prevalent in the field of cardiac surgery. Robotically assisted surgical systems were introduced to increase the precision of minimally invasive and endoscopic surgery, thanks to increased dexterity and enhanced endoscopic magnification with 3-dimensional (3D) vision.¹

The use of robotic surgical assistance in cardiac surgery has spawned an entirely new way to operate on coronary arteries and mitral valves. Despite this development, robotic cardiac surgery has been mainly focused on adult procedures, and only a few reports have included surgeries for congenital heart defects or pediatric cardiac cases. Atrial septal defects (ASDs) were the most common cardiac disease originally approached with a robotic platform due to their low level of complexity;^2–4 however, the expansion of this approach was significantly hampered by percutaneous solutions. The adoption of robotics in other congenital defects was almost nonexistent in the past 20 years and very few publications can be found in the literature.