what local hospital has reached a major
milestone they have performed more than
10,000 robotic surgeries
st. Luke's Baptist Hospital has been
using this technique that allows doctors
to perform complex procedures with more
precision and control than is possible
with conventional techniques Chima say
at nines Tiffany Huertas is live at st.
Luke's Hospital with more on that so
Tiffany why do doctors choose this
method and you look adorable
good morning mark and Leslie thank you
yeah a different outfit this morning and
this is surgery can perform and result
in less scarring and also less blood
loss and joining us right now is the
surgeon behind all of this procedures
this is John mature ski thank you for
joining us this morning can you explain
to us how this robot works absolutely so
the DaVinci is a telepresence robot it's
very much like virtual reality and you
can see Tiffany's sitting at the console
and she's controlling the robot from
afar the advantage here is it basically
takes minimally invasive surgery or
laparoscopy when we're operating in the
abdomen
and it allows us to be much more complex
operations with greater skill as
Stephanie mentioned less blood loss for
complex procedures say when I remove
part out of the colon or part of the
intestine and put it back together their
techniques it says or the technology
associated with a robot that allow us to
have fewer complications fewer leaks
patients are out of a hospital in a day
or so and that used to be a week or so
so tremendous advantages for the patient
if you are attentive to your surgery and
efficient the cost of the operation can
be as little or less than standard
laparoscopic procedures so there's
tremendous benefits and what type of
procedures are we talking about when we
do these type of operations excellent
question pretty much anything that you
can do in the belly so simple things
like inguinal hernia repairs incisional
hernia repairs belly button hernia
repairs we do colorectal surgery with it
remove parts of the pancreas spleen I do
a lot of cancer surgery all of those
sections and and reconstructions can be
done robotically and we do have a
patient today we do Abraham Lincoln has
volunteered very graciously to be our
patient can you show us we'll let you
take over can you show us how this
needle works absolutely so you can see
there are three working arms on the
robot
we can use our camera and control our
camera from the console we can zoom in
we can find Texas on the five-dollar
bill that most people don't know that
all of the states are represented on the
Lincoln Memorial and then a is addressed
very nicely so we have a needle driver
that's got scissors on the end you can
de set with this instrument which can
also cauterize and we actually have a
third arm that can move that we're in
control of so we can hold the patient's
still if they're trying to get away I
mean hold down tissue and we can
we can suture a Thurmond can fix his
hernia right here watches bull hernia
here I'm gonna just so I'm not
pretty impressive this this technology
is this where the future I mean this is
the future
without a doubt I mean this is this is
definitely future what we're seeing is
continued miniaturization of the robot
now there's coming out on the market
soon is this technology with one two and
a half centimeter incision and all of
the technology comes out and splays out
and get the same operations down mark I
think you have a question yeah John I
was gonna ask you so do you envision a
point where these machines will be the
only thing in the operating room other
than the patient or will there always be
a trained human companion along
monitoring or performing the procedure
fantastic question I think the goal is
to always have a trained professional a
surgeon at the bedside but in answer
your question do I see a time where the
robot may move independently of the
surgeons control get these operations
done more precisely and efficiently and
safely without a doubt how awkward is
that when you're first learning to do it
to do this I mean watching your hands
and the precision it is remarkable it
has to feel a little uncomfortable or
odd when you first start doing it
well that's a really excellent question
so I trained when I trained it was the
advent of laparoscopy so I did thousands
of laparoscopic surgeons surgeries so
that's minimally invasive but using my
hands and long instruments so it wasn't
much of a transition with the robot the
huge advantage of course where the robot
is the ability to manipulate tissue and
the instrumentation and the needles very
precisely almost as if my hands were in
the abdomen but in answer to your
question the reason that intuitive is
called intuitive the company that makes
the robot is because it's very intuitive
you saw tip and he sat down for she was
at the console for like eight seconds
since she already had motion of the
hands and the camera down don't choose
you sorry Tiffany John Tiffany thank you
so much congratulation on that ten
thousandth procedure by the way to tell
you and the staff thank you
fascinating all right guys thanks so
much