Robots, Coming To An Operating Table Near You

Posted by Steve Spalding in Quotable | View comments

Doctors at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh are using a robot to perform surgeries previously reserved for urologists. The robot, called da Vinci, is made up of a pair of robotic arms controlled by a nearby tele-presence unit.

Why a robot?

Prostatectomies and radical Prostatectomies normally require a three inch incision in the abdomen and pelvis. This is due, in part, to Doctor’s lack of mobility in the operating theater and the fact that unlike robots, human doctors have unsteady hands. da Vinci solves both of these problems, reducing the surgery to four to five tiny “pokes.” This substantially reduces the recovery time for patients.





Robot Surgeons

The same process reduces the normally ten day recovery period for Hysterectomy operations to under a week.

da Vinci is currently only being used in the urology and gynecology departments at West Penn and Allegheny hospitals, but doctors are now learning to use the same technology to perform heart valve surgery and they will likely begin this summer.

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