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The minimally invasive surgery system cuts pain and recovery time
YOUNGSTOWN
ValleyCare Health System of Ohio affiliates Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren have joined the da Vinci Si minimally invasive surgical system club.
The system, referred to as robot-assisted surgery to the displeasure of Dr. William Lee, ValleyCare Medical Group of Ohio general surgeon, has been in use at Trumbull Memorial Hospital for about a year and at Northside since April.
The da Vinci is not programmed as would be a robot. The physician does the surgery, Dr. Lee explained.
The da Vinci Si system was showcased recently at a meeting of Northside’s Senior Circle lunch-and-learn organization, members of which got to try out their da Vinci operating skills.
“It was amazing and fun,” said Peggy Evans of Liberty, who also said it was difficult coordinating her hands and feet using the physician’s console.
The console is one of three parts of the da Vinci system. The others are a vision tower with a monitor that shows the physician the operating field and the patient cart, on which the patient is placed for the surgery, and arms controlled by the physician to perform the operation.
While Dr. Lee doesn’t like the da Vinci to be labeled a robot, he is effusive in his praise of the system.
“It makes surgery safer for the patient and easier for me,” he said.
For instance, with gallbladder- removal surgery, the medical community has advanced from one large incision, to multiple small incisions with laparoscopic surgery, to one small incision in the patient’s belly button with the da Vinci, Dr. Lee said.
Surgery via da Vinci can help reduce postoperative pain, leave smaller incision scars and shorten recovery times.
The system enables surgeons to better see what they are doing by giving them a high-definition, 3-D picture of the operating field that is magnified 10 times, Dr. Lee said.
Further, the surgeon is sitting at a console, not standing during the operation holding a camera, so fatigue is not as much of a factor, he said.
The da Vinci procedures offered at ValleyCare facilities are anti-reflux surgery, benign-tumor removal, bowel diverticular resection, colon-cancer removal, gallbladder remover, hysterectomy, hernia repair and thoracic surgery.
Also on display at the senior circle lunch-and-learn meeting was the Mako minimally invasive surgical system for orthopedic procedures.
“We’re technology driven. All of the hospitals in town have the da Vinci. Now, we have the same technology. It gives us a whole new set of tools,” said Donna Label of Niles, director of surgical services at Northside.