SURGICAL PROCEDURES

da Vinci® is Changing the Experience of Surgery

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a condition that may require surgery, you owe it to yourself to learn about all of your medical options, including the most effective, least invasive surgical treatments available.

The da Vinci® Surgical System provides surgeons with an alternative to both traditional open surgery and conventional laparoscopy, putting a surgeon’s hands at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform. The da Vinci® System enables surgeons to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions with unmatched precision.

da Vinci® Surgery: Getting Hands-on About Being Hands-off

Whenever possible, minimally-invasive female surgery treatment options such as laparoscopic surgery are the most ideal solution to solving medical conditions including  fibroid uterus, endometriosis, and  pelvic organ prolapse ; and with the technological advances in medicine, robotic surgeries have been on the rise, most notably the da Vinci procedure. At  AWH, we have years of experience in treating women for a wide range of urogynecological issues; and we’re proud to provide our unique level of expertise to the women in our care. As the nation’s first board-certified Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgeon, Dr. Yockey’s expertise with the davinci system has earned her the positions of director of robotics surgical services at Alexian Brothers Medial Center, where she helped lead the team to become one of the top 5 hospitals for robotic gynelogical surgery.

Despite its obvious advantages, robotic laparoscopic surgery is sometimes only explored when other methods have failed or are simply not viable, due to the fact that not all physicians are familiar with such highly-advanced procedure and feel more comfortable in recommending and conducting traditional open surgeries. As a form of laparoscopic surgery, however, da Vinci® surgery has become known for the ways that it benefits both patient and doctor, with results that are more effectively achieved with less recovery time as well as requiring less time in the operating room. Due to the very nature of the system, da Vinci® is able to reach areas of the female pelvic region that are not easily accessible to the human hand and eye without open incision, thereby allowing the operating surgeon to perform various procedures more quickly and more accurately, which ultimately means greater success.

da Vinci® Surgery: the Magic Touch

During a da Vinci® surgery, small incisions are made to allow the surgeon to insert the very thin, very dexterous robotic arms of the system, which are then directed through the body using the guidance of a microscopic, magnified 3D high-definition camera which projects images onto a computer screen. As the operating field is navigated, the surgeon consults the images on her screen to perform the functions that would normally be carried out by her hands, each movement driven instead by handheld electronic controls at a computer console. With such precise maneuverability and visibility, the surgeon is able to conduct more complex surgeries, but even those procedures which many might consider to be straight-forward become more streamline. 

There are multiple advantages to laparoscopic and robotic surgical systems, such as:

• Less scarring of the internal organs
• Smaller, less visible external scarring
• Shortened post-operative hospital stays for patients
• More rapid recovery rates
• Greater ease of returning to full activity level, at a more rapid rate

da Vinci® Surgery: Women’s Work

Particularly beneficial to many women facing the need for the removal of their uterus, da Vinci® hysterectomy requires only one small incision through the belly button, rather than the more traditional method of full open surgery. In fact, it has become the leading minimally-invasive hysterectomy in the United States; and at AWH, we often advise our patients to consider this option.

Other gynecological surgeries now being performed using the da Vinci system include those to address such conditions as:

• Urinary incontinence
• Endometriosis
• Fibroid Tumors