Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Helping Hand - July 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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technologies, it's never, "This is as good as it's going to be." Your first-generation Android phone or iPhone was far different than what you use today. The same applies with these robots. Robotic-assisted surgery lets us do procedures we couldn't do with traditional laparoscopic means. The classic example is prostate sur- gery, which used to be a longer operation that had associated known complications. With the da Vinci robot, this operation now takes 60 to 90 minutes at experienced centers. Nerve injuries are far less common, and recoveries are much quicker. The robot has sent that operation to new heights, helping countless patients. Robots are incorporating a lot of advanced artificial intelligence to act as virtual assistants. Some now integrate CAT scan images or immunofluorescence imaging to help the surgeon do a better, safer operation. That sort of stuff is difficult to incorporate with traditional laparoscopy, but it's coming. We've found hybrid approaches are possible. We can use the Senhance surgical system for certain aspects of specific operations, while using traditional laparoscopy for others. I extract the advan- tages of the robot, but can shift to traditional laparoscopy rather seamlessly. Take a sleeve gastrectomy — we can do the dissection, exposure of the anatomy and a lot of other things with the robot. As of yet, there's no stapling platform for the Senhance, so I need an assistant to bring in a traditional laparoscopic stapler. When I convert back to laparoscopy with the Senhance, though, the port placements are very similar to what I'd place in a laparoscopic procedure. J U L Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 5 Surgical robots are only going to become more affordable, functional and cost-effective in the future because of increased competition and demand.

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