UIW checks out robotic surgery

By Alyssa Walker

LOGOS STAFF WRITER

   CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital gave the UIW campus a close-up look at robotic surgery by bringing the da Vinci Robot to Marian Hall Student Center on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

The da Vinci Robot was set up along a wall and students took turns sitting at the surgeon’s seat and personally working with the robot. Instead of a human body, students were “operating” on rubber bands and other small objects.

The robot is controlled with the thumb, index and middle finger on each hand. Surgeons see a magnified view of the surgical site and this image is translated to a monitor making it possible for other doctors in the room to see the details of the surgery. The 3D, high-definition monitor is touch screen and has a microphone that is connected to the console making it easy for doctors to communicate throughout the surgery.

   “The da Vinici Robot is the latest and greatest in robot surgery,” Margot Richmond, an operating room nurse at Santa Rosa, said, adding the hospital will receive another da Vinci Robot in March.

The da Vinci Robot has made it possible to perform complex surgeries in the least invasive way possible.

Robotic surgeries offer “less incision sites, less pain, less blood loss, less pain medication and shorter recovery time,” Richmond said. “Most patients can go home that [same] day.”

CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital, located in Alamo Heights, is one of three hospitals in San Antonio to have the $2 million da Vinci Robot performing surgeries on patients. The da Vinci Robot performs surgeries for otolaryngology, gynecology, urology and general surgery cases.

Having the da Vinci Robot perform surgery is not necessarily more expensive than having an orthodox procedure.

“The cost just depends on your insurance,” Richmond says.