SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Advanced technology is reshaping the way doctors can perform surgeries. Patients with some of the most complicated cases can be out of the hospital within days, and it used to take weeks.
News 8’s Neda Iranpour shows us the latest robot that has doctors and their patients very excited at Sharp Memorial Hospital.
Meet da Vinci. This robot may look big with complicated parts, but what it really does is… simplify. And when it comes to surgery in tiny places, the simpler the better.
Dr. Brianna Harris specializes in head and neck surgeries at Sharp Memorial Hospital, and she says, “I love this system, I was lucky enough to train on it in fellowship and it has revolutionized the way we help our patients.”
The da Vinci SP robot has a single port which allows doctors to perform surgeries without as much impact on the patient. One port has up to four devices: cutting, grasping, and cauterizing with the help of a camera that's also inside. And it can enter the body through a minuscule space.
Which is life saving for Dr. Harris who often removes tumors through the throat or on the tongue, tonsils and larynx, “in our specialty in particular, they [patients] can avoid chemo all together. They are back to eating in two days and back to work two weeks later. For me it’s an incredible opportunity to help patients with cancer.”
As for her patients? “They love it. One of my patients asks me to say hello to the robot because he loves it so much,” she says.
Dr. Harris showed News 8’s Neda Iranpour how it works.
The da Vinci is created by a company called Intuitive and Neda admits the movements were quite intuitive. Within moments, Neda was able to aim for mini rubber bands and place them onto tiny tubes. Obviously, the simulation is much easier and less stressful than surgery, but it’s a decent display for how easy it mimics your hand movements and how clear the camera is. Ten times the magnification, in fact.
And doctors say to be able to view what they’re doing with a 3D camera is a game changer alone.
“When my head is in the console, I actually have depth perception,” says Colorectal Surgeon Dr. Pamela Lee. Prior to this, Dr. Lee was performing some surgeries on colons using 2D technology with laparoscopic tools. “You can imagine doing surgery with chopsticks versus your own hands. So, the robot is kind of mimicking my hand motions and gestures with the wrist, it just becomes natural.”
But she really appreciates how much less invasive it is on her patients. Many of them will be able to spend less time in the hospital and more time at home, ideally without pain medications.
“I can take out someone’s entire colon and rectum with four to five 1-mm port…these patients end up with small incisions instead of a giant scar from sternum to their pubic bone,” says Dr. Lee. “Most of my patients are shocked at how quick the recovery is.”
Dr. Lee says she has watched technology advance exponentially since she started training in 2006, and that’s why she switched her entire practice to robotics, “I knew the technology was only going to get better, so you don’t want to be left behind and play catch up.”
Instead, now she’s leading the way, not only as one of the first doctors with the da Vinci SP robot at Sharp Memorial Hospital but also one of the first in San Diego.
So far, the new robot has been used on 40 cases at Sharp Memorial Hospital and they are the first hospital in San Diego with this technology.
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