A team of surgeons at Beaumont Hospital, Troy were the first in Michigan to perform the first single-incision, robotic surgery for the removal of gallbladder on Feb. 22. This scarless, belly button gallbladder surgery is the latest technique in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
The surgical team was directed by the chief of General Surgery, Beaumont, Troy, Bruce McIntosh, M.D. The team performed robotic surgeries that involved belly button incision of less than 1-in for gallbladder removal for three local patients. This new procedure was validated by the FDA in Dec. 2011 for the intuitive da Vinci Robotic Surgical System.
This new surgical procedure is more advantageous to patients as it assures reduced pain, less bleeding, short duration of post-surgical treatment, speedy recovery and minimal scarring. This procedure also improves the quality and safety of patient care. The surgery can be performed quickly within an hour, requiring hospital stay of only two hours.
This convenient surgical procedure requires minimal movement in the operation theatre, wherein the surgeon can perform the entire surgery by sitting and viewing the 3-D, high-definition images. The control option provided below the display can be leveraged to move the robotic arms equipped with surgical instruments. The movements of the surgeon's hand, wrist and finger will be translated by the system into a real-time, accurate application of surgical instruments in vivo.
The new technology requires only a single incision at the belly button, through which the instruments are applied to remove the damaged organ. This single-port robotic- assisted approach is demonstrated to be effective over other related traditional methods that perform the surgery with three to four small incisions.
Source: http://www.beaumont.edu/