Teams in Bordeaux and Xiamen complete remote robotic mitral valve repair
The patient stayed in Xiamen while doctors in France controlled the robot, with local intervention, anaesthesia, ultrasound and nursing teams present.
Published by CareAtlas · Editorial policy
A patient underwent robot-assisted transcatheter mitral valve repair at Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital, Xiamen University, on October 23, 2025. Doctors controlled the system from Bordeaux, France. The hospital’s October 27 account describes the cross-border procedure, local monitoring and the patient’s early recovery.
Doctors in France, patient in Xiamen
Hospital president Wang Yan worked beside Lionel Leroux, head of adult structural heart interventions at Bordeaux University Hospital. Thomas Modine, who leads its structural valve treatment and innovation centre, joined online to provide remote guidance.
The doctors used a remote-control platform to operate the robotic system in Xiamen’s catheter laboratory. The intervention was transcatheter edge-to-edge repair of the mitral valve, known as TEER. It was performed on the patient’s beating heart.
Remote commands with a local care team
The communication route extended more than 10,000 kilometres. Through an international high-speed, low-latency network, the team in Bordeaux navigated the valve area and controlled the robot’s movements.
The hospital describes the robot performing valve positioning and clipping in response to commands from France, without a local operator controlling those movements. Cardiac intervention, anaesthesia, ultrasound and nursing staff remained in the Xiamen laboratory, monitoring the patient’s vital signs and the system throughout.
A one-hour operation and early outcome
The procedure lasted approximately one hour. The hospital reported stable cross-border signals and submillimetre operating precision. After repair, mitral regurgitation was close to zero.
The account states that the patient recovered well and had been discharged. These were the postoperative findings reported for this individual procedure.
Experience with the robotic system
The hospital and a Shanghai medical technology company jointly developed the transcatheter cardiac robotic system. Its design includes precise mechanical arms, motion control, safety algorithms and redundant high-speed 5G communication.
The hospital first used the system for robotic mitral valve repair in 2023. By this report it had accumulated more than twenty clinical uses. The October case extended that experience to real-time cooperation between teams in China and France.