Robotic Surgical Systems
The technology of robotic surgery is now offered at both Mercy Medical Center West and Mercy Medical Center St. Mary's. Click here to read about the brand new da Vinci surgical system at Mercy Medical Center West.
View videos of our recent community programs on robotic surgery:
Surgeons at St. Mary’s Medical Center are pioneering the use of robotics in minimally invasive surgical procedures.
Not designed to replace a surgeon, the robotic surgical platform, the da Vinci S Surgical System, interprets and refines the surgeon’s hand movements, allowing for complex dissection or reconstruction in a minimally invasive environment. This robotic technology is designed to scale, filter, and seamlessly translate the surgeons hand movements into the precise movements of the robotic arms and instruments. Benefits of this type of minimally invasive surgery include less blood loss, shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to normal activities.
Since the installation of the robotic surgical system in 2006, Christopher Ramsey, M.D., a board-certified urologist in practice with the Urology Consultants of Knoxville and on the active staff at St. Mary’s Medical Center, has perform more than 300 procedures using the da Vinci surgical robot. “Robotic-assisted surgery has been shown in many studies to be safe and effective in a number of medical procedures including prostatectomy, hysterectomy and cardiac TMR,” said Dr. Ramsey. “Using just five to six small incisions, robotic-assisted surgery has all the benefits of minimally invasive procedures including shorter hospital stays, less blood loss, faster recovery and a quicker return to normal activities.”
St. Mary’s Medical Center has been the site of several new applications for the robotic surgical platform:
* A St. Mary’s OB/GYN specialist was the first surgeon in the world to perform a hysterectomy using a newly developed laser-robotic surgery system.
Michael Fields, M.D., used a prototype robotic surgery system that replaces the traditional cutting scissors on one arm of the robotic da Vinci S Surgical System with a laser to cut out the uterus. Dr. Fields is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and is on the active staff at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
“While lasers have been used in a number of GYN procedures for several years, the combination of the da Vinci robotic surgery system and laser equipment is a tremendous improvement for our patients,” Dr. Fields said. “Using the laser on the robotic surgery system results in much less tissue damage because of the great precision of the robotic platform and provides all the other advantages of minimally invasive, robotic surgery.”
* The region’s first robotic TMR procedure was performed by Thomas R. Pollard, M.D., board certified in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, to treat a 48 year-old patient suffering from severe chest pain.
“TMR, or transmyocardinal revascularization, is a proven technique to relieve the angina resulting from heart disease,” said Dr. Pollard. “Traditionally, it has been done as an open-chest surgery with its long recovery period.”
“The exciting thing about this for our patients is that we are now able to perform a TMR using the minimally invasive, robotic surgery system and achieve very good outcomes for our patients.
Dr. Pollard said that a special laser mounted on one of the arms of the surgical robotic carves small channels in the heart muscle stimulating increased blood flow in the damaged muscle. Using the robotic system, Dr. Pollard only needs to make three small incisions in the chest area, instead of the traditional one, long incisions in open-chest operations.
Dr. Pollard is also using the da Vinci robotic surgery system to perform coronary artery bypass surgery.
“By using the robot, the surgery doesn’t require the big incision through the sternum to repair the coronary arteries or the need to stop the heart from beating during the surgery,” said Thomas Pollard, M.D., a board-certified cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon with the East Tennessee Cardiovascular Surgery Group. “This helps to prevent the associated risks and complications from cracking open the chest as is done in traditional coronary artery bypass surgery.”
Click here for more information on the daVinci Surgical System.
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Dr. Thomas Pollard (left) prepares the da Vinci surgical robot for the region's first TMR robotic procedure at Mercy Medical Center St. Mary's.
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Dr. L. Michael Fields (left) and Dr. Christopher Ramsey discuss the operation of the surgeon's console of the da Vinci during an orientation session for the new equipment in the St. Mary's Medical OR 5.
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