For first time, da Vinci removes kidney with one incision
September 1, 2008
The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit has recently used Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci surgical robot to remove a diseased kidney with only a single incision. The cutting-edge procedure was designed by surgeon Craig Roger, and has now been performed on two patients.
Every year, about 55,000 people have kidneys removed, which usually requires a foot-long incision and sometimes the removal of a rib. While some surgeons have manually performed kidney surgery with a single small incision, this is the first time a robot has achieved the same feat.
One of the biggest advantages of using the robot rather than a human surgeon is that the robot is more precise. Robots can be programmed to filter out hand tremors and other slight movements. Robotic surgery also requires less recovery time, less scarring, and less patient discomfort compared with manual surgeries, in general.
The surgeons hope that this demonstration of single-incision kidney surgery performed by a robot will pave the way to more complicated surgeries, such as reducing open-heart surgery to a single-incision procedure.
"Heart surgery today requires cracking the chest open to access the heart,” said Alexis Morgan, da Vinci marketing manager at Intuitive Surgical. "That results in a lengthy recover period – typically a week's stay at a hospital – and undue discomfort to the patient, but performing heart surgery with a da Vinci robot would require only two or three days for recovery."
via: EE Times
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