PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. – The da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic-assisted surgery system that is a minimally invasive option for patients. The system assists surgeons through a wide array of different types of surgeries and is much more accurate and delicate when surgery requires pinpoint accuracy.
The system was designed and produced by Intuitive, which was founded in 1995. The da Vinci surgical System has been around and constantly in development since the early 2000’s.
According to Intuitive’s official website, “More than 60,000 surgeons around the world have been trained on da Vinci systems and have completed more than 10 million surgical procedures using da Vinci systems.”
The system is controlled via a console, which is where the surgeon operates. The da Vinci System offers 3D high-definition views and can magnify the surgical area up to 10 times to what the human eye can see. The system uses tiny instruments that move similarly to a human hand but with a far greater range of motion and much smoother precision.
As part of their expansion of surgical services, this will be the first robotic surgical system that has ever been available at CalvertHealth. Up to this point, CalvertHealth has remained one of the very few hospitals in Maryland that did not offer robotic-assisted surgeries.
“Because of our affiliation with Duke Health, we’re seeing a lot more of our cancer patients locally, so we are starting to see more of the applications that need the robotic platform,” Dr. Ramzi Alami, Chair of Surgical Services at Calvert Health and Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery Program Director, told The BayNet. “It’s gonna be used across the different specialties also, so I for one will definitely be using it for bariatric surgery as well as some of the other general surgical procedures.”
Alami also stated that he knew CalvertHealth’s Urologist Dr. John Cooper is anxious to get his hands on the system. Alami noted that across the nation, most surgeons will not perform prostate surgeries without a robot.
“There’s so much technology that is incorporated in these systems that make it much more attractive now than it was even seven years ago. Part of that is some of the devices that were not available to the robot when it first came out but now are applicable on the platform. These are a lot of the devices that we use in surgery. As technology evolves we become much more dependent on it, so as we become more dependent on some of these devices it’s important to incorporate them in systems such as the da Vinci robot, and they have,” Alami stated. “You can do anything you could without a robot, but also much more. The system has also become much more user-friendly, so we don’t run into as many problems anymore now. It is so easy to incorporate into your surgical practice and it’s much like its company’s name, Intuitive to most surgeons.”
Alami stated that many of the younger surgeons are now often dependent on robots, so it also helps attract younger surgeons to the staff.
For some, however, there may be a lingering fear of robotic surgery, as some believe that these systems are fully independent. Alami and other surgeons want it to be clear that these systems such as the da Vinci system are fully controlled by surgeons. The console of the system is even in the same operating room. Some systems allow remote operation, but those are not as common due to the technology simply not being there yet.
“I’m someone who’s been in practice for about 20 years, so when I first started, robotic surgery was something that I was trained on, but it wasn’t something that you would find everywhere. So I can do an operation with or without a robot. But at the same time, I’m very excited about this because what it offers me is a lot more accuracy and a little bit more security in the operating room, and it makes some of the more difficult procedures much easier. So am I saying this is something I can’t live without, no, but it’s sort of like saying you can live without a car, you could walk or ride a bike wherever you want, but if you have it, it becomes an absolute need. So I see this as a resource that is going to be so invaluable to us,” Alami stated.
“But the whole point of us as a community hospital is to be able to treat our patients and offer them as many of the services that they need that we can offer safely. There will still be some things that are out of our reach, but we want to make sure that we can make available as many of our services to as many local people as we can. So when we talk about prostate cancer, there’s no reason for patients to have to travel two hours each way just to get the proper care they need when they can get it here. So I think this resource won’t just be vital, it will be transformative.”
The da Vinci system is expected to be fully integrated and operational at CalvertHealth by Spring 2024.
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I don’t no robots performing and procedures or surgeries on me at all.