When you walk into UT Health East Texas for surgery,expect a few changes. While the surgeon will still be the main operator, they will not be doing it alone.
"It has various arms that control instruments we use to do the surgery," Doctor Vivek Patel, a cadio surgeon at UT Health East Texas said.
The Da Vinci Xi allows surgeons to operate more efficiently, through a highly magnified view extending their eyes and hands into the patient.
The patients benefit by:
- Fewer pain medications
- Leaving the hospital sooner
- Shorter recovery time
"Overall it's helping us fight cancer, which is good," Patel said.
While it is mostly used for cancer type surgeries, it can also be used for minimally invasive surgeries such as gynecology, urology, cardiac, as well as general surgery.
Patel has already seen a difference.
"The one patient I did surgery on did fantastic she left the hospital in a couple of days after her surgery and feels great," Patel said.
He also mentioned that patients can go home within 24 hours of surgery and in many cases the same day, compared to open surgery which can take up to two weeks to recover.