In July and August 2025, a claim circulated online that U.S. surgeons performed first robotic heart transplant without opening the patient's chest cavity.
One Facebook post (archived) with the claim reached over 15,000 reactions, with an image displaying the text, "US Surgeons Perform First Robotic Heart Transplant Without a Single Chest Cut."
The post read (emphasis added):
In a major step forward for heart surgery, doctors in the U.S. have performed a heart transplant entirely with robotic assistance—without opening the chest. This marks the first time such a procedure has been completed in the country using a fully robotic method.
The operation was carried out at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, where a 45-year-old man with advanced heart failure was chosen for the procedure. Traditionally, heart transplants require the chest to be opened by cutting the breastbone, but this approach took a different route.
Surgeons accessed the heart by making small incisions through the preperitoneal space in the abdomen. A surgical robot was used to remove the failing heart and implant a donor heart—all without making a large chest incision.
This minimally invasive method helped reduce some of the major risks associated with open-heart surgery, such as heavy bleeding, infection, and long recovery times. By avoiding the chest cavity, the trauma of surgery was greatly reduced.
Similar claims spread on other social media platforms, with one X post (archived) on the topic reading, "Surgeons have completed the first fully robotic heart transplant in the U.S., avoiding the need to open the chest or break the sternum." What's more, some Facebook posts with the claim redirected to a seemingly AI-written article (archived).
Although this and similar posts conveyed accurate information and were based on a real event, the operation conducted in the U.S. in 2025 was not the first of its kind in the entire world. A team of Saudi Arabian surgeons had already successfully performed a fully robotic heart transplant without opening the chest cavity in 2024. As such, we rated this claim a mixture of true and false information.
What we know about the surgery in 2025
On March 15, 2025, a team of surgeons at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, led by Dr. Kenneth Liao, performed what is recognized as the first fully robotic heart transplant in the United States that did not require opening the chest with a traditional sternotomy.
According to the Baylor College of Medicine website, surgeons at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston carried out the procedure on a 45-year-old patient with advanced heart failure. The operation was described as "the first reported in the United States."
Instead of opening the chest and splitting the breastbone, lead surgeon Dr. Kenneth Liao and his team used a surgical robot to make small, precisely placed incisions. The diseased heart was removed and the donor heart implanted through a route that avoided the need for a large chest incision.
"Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially in heart transplant patients who take immunosuppressants," Liao explained, adding that "with the robotic approach, we preserve the integrity of the chest wall, which reduces the risk of infection and helps with early mobility, respiratory function and overall recovery."
Similarly, in another article, Baylor College of Medicine explained that "until now, heart transplants in the United States have required a full median sternotomy, where surgeons cut down the center of the breastbone and spread the ribcage apart to access the heart," highlighting that "while effective, this traditional approach comes with significant risks: larger scars, greater blood loss, higher infection rates and a longer recovery."
During the operation, Liao sat at a console near the patient, guiding the robot's arms with 3D, high-definition visualization. The robotic tools mirrored his hand and wrist movements on a smaller scale, allowing precise maneuvers in areas too confined for human hands alone. Finally, the blog post explicitly stated it was "the second fully robotic heart transplant ever performed in the world."
The first fully robotic heart transplant in 2024
While the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center's procedure was the first of its kind in the United States, the world's first fully robotic heart transplant was performed in Saudi Arabia in 2024. The operation took place at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh. According to the hospital's official announcement:
In a globally groundbreaking achievement, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC) successfully performed the world's first fully robotic heart transplant on a 16-year-old patient suffering from end-stage heart failure. This pioneering achievement, overcoming the significant medical challenges associated with such procedures, reinforces Saudi Arabia's leadership in healthcare and highlights KFSHRC's ability to innovate medical practices that enhance treatment outcomes and patient experiences
The procedure, which lasted about two and a half hours, was carried out by a surgical team led by Dr. Feras Khaliel, Head of Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery Program at KFSHRC.
According to the website, the team "devised a surgical approach to access the heart and perform the transplant without opening the chest." The hospital emphasized that the achievement represented a significant shift in heart transplant surgery, shifting away from traditional chest-opening procedures requiring long recovery.
The Cardiothoracic Surgery Network (CTSNet) and Surgery International also reported on the Saudi Arabia surgery.
All in all, while the posts were based on a real event, the broader claim that the U.S. 2025 surgery was the first such procedure in the world was false. The world's first fully robotic heart transplant was performed in 2024 in Saudi Arabia, on a 16-year-old patient. In both the U.S. and Saudi operations, surgeons avoided the standard approach of opening the chest cavity. Rather, they used small incisions to remove the diseased heart and implant the donor organ.
In March 2024, we investigated a story about a heart transplant recipient who allegedly married his donor's wife, then died in the exact same way the donor had. Moreover, in April 2024 we examined a video allegedly showing a crying baby being passed on from person to person until it stops crying as it recognizes its mother's heart in the chest of a man who received it as a donation.