An eight-year-old girl lies in an operating room in Children's Hospital Boston, propped up on one side, ready for surgery. She had been complaining of pains in her side, and a scan revealed a blockage in her left kidney.
In most hospitals, she'd get a six-inch slice down her abdominal wall, giving surgeons access to her kidney during open surgery, and would then spend four to five days recovering in the hospital. But this Monday morning she is about to undergo a robotic surgical procedure. In about three hours, she'll leave the operating room with a one-inch incision covered by a regular Band-Aid. She'll most likely return home the next day.
Surgeon Hiep Nguyen, a specialist in pediatric urology and robotic surgery, says the da Vinci robot has greatly expanded the complexity of the minimally invasive surgeries he can perform. It offers three-dimensional vision and articulated tips on the surgical tools that go inside the patient, which allows for smaller, finer movements than traditional laparoscopy. At a recent talk in Boston, Nguyen described complex reconstructive surgeries--fashioning a urethra from an appendix, for example--that just a few years ago would have required open surgery.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Technology Review: The Slow Rise of the Robot Surgeon
Author: Emily
Singer
