The Italian expert has used the robot surgeon for at least 40 previous operations, some of which have been described in detail in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology .

The novelty of this latest experience is that the robot was able to conduct the entire procedure by itself. In the past it needed specific orders from its operator along the way .

"It has learned to do the job thanks to experience gathered from operations on 10,000 patients," Pappone said, explaining that the expertise of several human surgeons was used to boost its software .