More Patients Request Robotic Procedures

Good news travels fast. And as the benefits of robotic surgery continue to spread, more women facing hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures now request robotic surgeries.

Less pain, fewer complications, shorter hospital stay and a quicker recovery are all reasons the robotic procedures have become so popular. Physicians practicing at Memorial Medical Center perform the surgeries by controlling the da Vinci System, or robot. Although it’s called a “robot,” the da Vinci cannot act on its own. The surgery is performed entirely by your doctor whose hand movements are translated into smaller, more precise movements of tiny instruments inside your body. The technology allows doctors to perform complex procedures through just a few tiny openings.

“The robot is the way of the future,” said Jane Arbuthnot, MD, with Memorial Physician Services’ Women’s Healthcare. “To be able to get that kind of precision – it’s incredible.”

Surgeons recently performed the 500th da Vinci surgical procedure at Memorial Medical Center since its commission two years ago. Because of the system’s success, a second system was just purchased.

Nearly half of the procedures (46 percent) using the system have been hysterectomies. More than one out of four procedures (26 percent) has been prostatectomies. The rest include gynecological procedures (16 percent); partial kidney removals (7 percent); and colon resections (3 percent). Plans are also in place to begin using the system for ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeries.

“Standard recovery for a hysterectomy is four to six weeks,” Dr. Arbuthnot said. “Patients who have undergone a da Vinci procedure are typically back in the office two weeks later. The word is out, and people are definitely asking for this now.”