Robotic Surgery at AAMC

AAMC’s Robotic Surgery team utilizes the da Vinci S Surgical system as a treatment option for patients with issues ranging from prostate cancer to benign and malignant pelvic conditions.  Minimally invasive robotic-assisted procedures allow surgeon to operate using a series of small incisions for optimal, nerve-sparing preservation of vital structures. Patients who undergo these surgeries often experience less blood loss and pain and faster recoveries, with results equal to or better than from open surgical procedures.

AAMC offers robotic surgery across many specialties, including urology, gynecology, urogynecology and general surgery.  Robotic surgery may be an option for a variety of surgical procedures, including prostatectomy, abdominal surgery and liver resection, as well as many types of gynecological surgery.

Benefits of Robotic Surgery

Robotic equipment allows the surgeon to provide patients with the most advanced procedures and improved experiences and outcomes. The advantages for patients include smaller and less invasive incisions, less pain, fewer complications, and shorter hospital stays and recovery times.

Other benefits of the robotic system include:

1. Tiny instruments moving in extremely small spaces
2. Enhanced imaging and surgical precision
3. Improved dexterity
4. Increased range of motion
5. Magnification ten times that of traditional systems
6. Three-dimensional view

Advanced Techniques for Surgery

AAMC was one of the first regional medical centers to offer advanced minimally invasive robotic surgery using the da Vinci S system. The system combines robotic technology with our surgeons’ skill to simplify surgical procedures and make new types of minimally invasive surgery possible for our patients.

Surgeons “drive” tiny robotic instruments by operating controls while seated at a console, viewing a three-dimensional magnified image of the surgical field. The surgeon’s instructions are immediately translated for the robot and executed in real time, with the surgical instruments performing extremely precise movements in very small spaces.

The da Vinci S system consists of four parts. First is a console where the surgeon sits to operate, viewing a 3-D image of the surgical field. From the console hand, wrist and finger movements the surgeon makes are seamlessly transmitted to the surgical instruments inside the patient.

On the monitor the InSite video Vision System processes, enhances and optimizes the images it provides for the surgeon as he or she operates.

A patient-side cart holds two kinds of robotic arms—instrument arms and an endoscopic arm—that execute the commands of the surgeon. The arms pivot in small incisions called operating ports, and surgical team members help install instruments and supervise them and the robotic arms during a procedure.

The arms are attached to EndoWrist instruments, each of which has a specific purpose like suturing, clamping or manipulating tissue.