Surgeons at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, a member of Trinity Health – New England, are the first across the five hospital system and in Connecticut, to perform a robotic partial lobectomy liver resection procedure using the da Vinci Surgical System, according to St. Francis.
The 90-minute procedure was performed last month on a woman over 50 to determine whether lesions on her liver were cancerous after a traditional biopsy was unsuccessful. There was no cancer and after an overnight stay at St. Francis, she was sent home with four dime-sized incisions in her abdomen – one of the advantages of the robotic surgery, the hospital said. The benefits of robotic surgery include minimal blood loss during the procedure, quicker recovery times and smaller incisions, the hospital said.
Surgical oncologist Dr. Bret Schipper performed the operation with the assistance of minimally invasive surgeon Dr. Richard M. Newman.
Using the da Vinci system, the surgeon follows 3D images on a screen from a camera placed inside the patient through a small incision. The camera, and surgical instruments, are placed inside the patient through a few incisions, each no larger than a dime. The surgeon uses the console’s master controls to maneuver the four robotic arms that hold the instruments.
The instruments’ design allows the surgeon to operate with more precision and steadier movements compared with hand-held instruments. Unlike conventional approaches, the target anatomy appears at high magnification, in brilliant color and with natural depth of field, St. Francis said.
