BURLINGTON, N.C. — They aren't transformers, but surgical robots are changing the way surgery is being done at Alamance Regional Medical Center and perhaps your next surgery too.
The use of medical robots began more than 30 years ago but was hard to come by.
Alamance Regional Medical Center added one to its hospital, potentially upgrading what doctors can do.
"Everything that we can do out in the open with our hands we are now about to do inside the belly through these eight-millimeter to twelve-millimeter incisions," said Dr. Isami Sakai, General Surgeon with Cone Health Alamance Regional Medical Center.
The doctors can do it all from the comfort of their chairs. The medical robot is called the Da Vinci system.
It assists surgeons during procedures but it's also enhancing what doctors can do to help patients heal quicker.
While surgical robots can’t perform surgeries by themselves, they give surgeons superhuman capabilities that greatly benefit patients. The robot allows the surgeon to use these tools very precisely in increasingly complex operations. This leads to faster recoveries and smaller scars for patients.
"The suturing has become quicker, and the complexity of the cases has gone up too and we're able to do those more efficiently because of the freedom of motion and the better visualization," Dr. Sakai said.
Dr. Sakai says he controls the system from his seat while the surgical tech is keeping watch of Da Vinci's tools.
Alamance Regional was the first hospital in North Carolina to earn accreditation by SRC as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery. Most general surgeries, gynecological procedures, oncology procedures, and urology procedures are done robotically at Alamance Regional.
Robotic Surgeries it has performed:
- Hernia repairs
- Gallbladder removal
- Partial or complete prostate removal
- Partial or complete colon removal
- Colostomy reversals
- Hysterectomy
- Abdominal exploration
- Abdominal exploration
Da Vinci has been used in surgeries like hernia repair and gallbladder removal to name a few.
Dr. Sakai said while surgeons using the system are seeing the benefits firsthand, patients are feeling them.
"The biggest advantage is the decrease in narcotic use that we've seen just within the few years that we've implemented this here," Dr. Sakai said.
It's revolutionizing medicine, one surgery at a time.