Atrial fibrillation is a common arrhythmia after conventional open heart surgery. A minimally invasive robotic approach has the potential to lower its occurrence. We sought to review the literature on the incidence of post operative atrial fibrillation in robotic heart surgery and compare it to the incidence in conventional cardiac surgery. The types of operation investigated were: coronary artery bypass surgery, mitral valve repair, atrial septal defect closure and myxoma excision. Operations were performed using the first, second, and third generation of the daVinciTM surgical robotic system.

Overall atrial fibrillation after robotic heart surgery has a low occurence rate in the 0% to 27.9% range. By comparing with historical series of conventional surgery, the robotic approach offers a potentially lower incidence. Reasons for this difference could be reduced tissue trauma, less frequent atrial and cardiac manipulation.