HealthEast is a leading source for robotic surgery, with an experienced surgical team of 15 credentialed physicians and 23 trained OR professionals performing more than 2,500 procedures since 2004.

Robotic surgery is performed on one of two da Vinci® Surgical Systems located at St. John’s Hospital. da Vinci was introduced in 1999 and was the first FDA-approved robotic surgical system. In 2009, St. John’s Hospital upgraded to the newest da Vinci model, da Vinci si™. Today, da Vinci stands as the gold standard for robotic surgery for patients worldwide.

Benefits

Patients, surgeons and care teams choose robotic surgery as a treatment option that is minimally invasive and can often provide a faster recovery than traditional open surgery. Other benefits include:

• Faster return to daily activities
• Fewer complications
• Shorter hospital stay
• Reduced hospitalization costs
• Reduced trauma
• Significantly less pain
• Less scarring

How robotic surgery works

Robotic surgery enables surgeons to be more precise, advancing their technique and enhancing their capability to perform complex surgeries in a minimally invasive manner.

The da Vinci system replicates the surgeon's movements in real time. It cannot be programmed, nor can it make decisions on its own to move in any way or perform any type of surgical maneuver without the surgeon's input.

The robot acts as an extension of the doctor's hands, allowing him or her to perform surgery with pinpoint accuracy and very little damage to surrounding tissue.

Your surgeon is seated at the da Vinci console near you in the room and surrounded by your full surgical team. From the console your doctor controls the robotic arms, which hold a tiny camera and surgery instruments. These instruments operate through several small incisions. The camera sends magnified images back to your surgeon, who sees them on a 3D monitor.

Conditions treated

• Colorectal
• Gynecologic
• Lung cancer
• Prostate & Urologic