Surgeons Use New High-Definition Robot During Living-Donor Kidney Transplant

One more use for the Da Vinci robotics system...BD

Surgeons at Rush University Medical Center are performing living-donor kidney transplants using a new high-definition robotic surgery system that offers improved precision, shorter recovery and smaller incisions for the donor patient. Utilizing the new high-definition da Vinci S Surgical System, the surgeon sits in a console a few feet from the patient and views the surgical site through a high-definition three dimensional viewer. The laparoscopic camera and robotic arms are inserted into the patient though four half-inch incisions. The surgeon uses hand controls and foot pedals to manipulate the robotic arms in the mechanically-assisted surgery. The fully intact kidney is removed through a small three inch bikini line incision. According to Dr. Kalyan Latchamsetty, a laparascopic surgeon at Rush, the robotic surgery offers many advantages over conventional laparoscopy surgery, in which the surgeon operates through small incisions using hand-held, long-shafted instruments.