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Robot surgery at DGH: Decatur General now offering new surgical procedure for women involving ?natural body orifices extractions'
May 22, 2009 (The Decatur Daily - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Female patients won't have major scarring if they choose a surgical option available at Decatur General Hospital.
The hospital is using a robotic surgery system that allows surgeons to enter the body through a small incision and perform surgery.
By avoiding large incisions, patients experience less pain, shorter hospital stays, quicker recovery and less risk of infection.
Dr. Brent Sharpe said Decatur General is the only hospital in the state using the da Vinci Surgical System to remove cancerous kidneys from women through their vaginas.
To accomplish this, doctors make about four to five holes the size of a pinky finger and an incision in the vagina to remove the organ.
"This is the most minimum evasive option we have for this kind of surgery," said Sharpe, who has been at the hospital since 2007.
Sharpe said the incision in the vagina is less painful than the traditional 12- to 13-inch incision for kidney removal.
Recovery also is quicker, he said.
Traditional surgery recovery is about two months. The first women to have an organ vaginally extracted at Decatur General left the hospital in two days.
"Recovery took about three weeks," Sharpe said.
To date, Decatur General has performed four of what the doctor described as "natural body orifices extractions."
Sharpe said the patient makes the choice between vaginal removal and traditional surgery.
"If I was going to recommend one, I would take the new way because of all the minimized risks," the doctor said.
Decatur General invested about $1.5 million in the equipment doctors use for robotic-aided surgery.
Sharpe has used the equipment to perform more than 200 procedures.
Doctors videoed one of his surgeries, and hospitals nationwide plan to use the footage to train and enhance robotics surgery.
His first case was in April 2007 when he operated on a child with an obstructed kidney.
Physicians at the hospital have also used the equipment during bladder lifts, hysterectomies and a prostatectomy.
"We have used it for about seven or eight different procedures," Sharpe said. "We're doing more robotic-aided surgeries than any hospital in North Alabama."
See Also:
The da Vinci Surgical System
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