UIC is the first institution in the tri-state region and only the fifth in the nation to perform robotic surgery since the FDA approved use of the only commercially available device July 11. The second case was a laparoscopic gastric bypass, the first ever of its type to be done robotically. With a second surgeon and other medical personnel at the patient's side, Horgan operated from a console a few feet away, viewing a three-dimensional image of the surgical field and controlling the instruments. He expects that, within a year or two, he and other specially trained surgeons will use the same techniques to operate from their own hospitals on patients anywhere in the world, a technique known as telepresence surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive, performed through a small opening rather than a large incision.
Surgeons use a tiny camera to view the operating field and small instruments to perform the surgery.
Robotic assisted surgery vastly expands the capabilities of surgeons to operate laparoscopically, Horgan says. Like conventional laparoscopic surgery, it eliminates the need for large incisions that prolong the patient's recovery. The robotic device allows surgeons to view the operating field in 3-D and manipulate the instruments precisely and naturally. Perhaps the most important advantage of robotic surgery is that it provides range of motion similar to wrist movement, which is not possible with traditional laparoscopic instruments. Modeled after the human wrist, the robotic instruments have cables that work like tendons in the hands to allow precise movements.