PIVOTABLE STABILIZER TOOL FOR TOTAL ENDOSCOPIC CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS

A stabilizer for minimally invasive cardiac surgery has a pair of stabilizer members which are individually inserted into a patient and assembled to a robotic arm internally. Each stabilizer member has a suction pod at a distal end and a mounting section at a proximal end. The mounting section includes a fixed tab and a rotatable lever arm with a movable tab on a first end of the rotatable lever arm. The tabs are configured to extend through an opening in a respective jaw of a robotic arm. A lever operator is coupled to the lever arm and is configured to pivot the lever arm between an expanded state of the tabs and a contracted state of the tabs.