Robotic Surgery
Get back to the things you love sooner after surgery. Ask your surgeon about the robotic technology at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. Procedures using this equipment often need less recovery time because they use tiny incisions or no incisions at all. The technology is so precise that the risk of side effects is low—and treatment is highly effective. We’ll help you start feeling like yourself again as quickly as possible.
What is Robotic Surgery?
To perform some procedures, surgeons control a “robot” with arms that bend and rotate further and move more steadily than human hands. Robotic systems include advanced imaging and navigation technology that:
- Helps surgeons accurately plan your procedure
- Guides surgeons during the operation
- Tailors treatment to your anatomy in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise
Benefits of Robotic Technology
Robotic systems let surgeons perform some procedures less invasively, affecting fewer areas of your body. That means you heal sooner, have less pain and scarring, and are less likely to experience an infection or another complication (unexpected problem).
What Procedures Use a Robot?
Surgeons at St. Bernards Medical Center may use robotic equipment for:
- Colon surgery and lung surgery, which our surgeons have more experience in than most other Arkansas providers
- Esophagectomy (esophagus removal), which St. Bernards surgeons were the first in Arkansas to perform using the robot
- General surgery, such as hernia repair, weight-loss surgery and gallbladder removal
- Gynecologic surgery, including hysterectomy and treatment for pelvic organ prolapse
- Knee and hip replacement
- Neurosurgery, such as spinal fusion
- Urologic surgery, including prostatectomy (prostate removal) and kidney procedures
da Vinci 5® Robot
Building upon 16 years of successful robotic surgeries, surgeons at St. Bernards Medical Center have begun using a new, highly-advanced surgical robot that can improve outcomes for patients and give doctors better insights and accuracy.
This new robot, the Intuitive da Vinci 5® surgical system, specializes in minimally invasive surgical procedures for urology, gynecology, thoracic and general surgeries. Since St. Bernards began a partnership with Intuitive in 2008, its surgeons have performed more than 7,500 surgical procedures using previous da Vinci iterations. St. Bernards General Surgeon Willie Harper, M.D. completed the hospital’s first da Vinci 5 procedure, a gastric bypass surgery (pictured below). This procedure marks the first surgery in Arkansas using da Vinci 5.
“The newest da Vinci helps us provide our patients the most up-to-date and innovative surgical care. This new system allows us to perform our procedures with excellent efficiency and precision through enhanced visualization and the latest in electrosurgical technology. The da Vinci 5 is another great step in achieving the goal of the best care possible for our surgical patients.”
— Willie Harper, M.D, St. Bernards General Surgeon
The da Vinci 5 has more than 150 new design innovations, translating a surgeon’s hand movements into smaller, more precise actions. Its key enhancements include:
· Force feedback technology that allows a surgeon to feel resistance when operating on patient tissue. This resistance potentially reduces the amount of force used;
· Better imaging, such as more accurate colors and a higher-resolution, realistic 3-D image;
· Better ergonomics for greater surgeon comfort and surgical viewing;
· More than 10,000 times the computing power of da Vinci Xi.
The da Vinci 5 system marks the ninth robotic surgical system at St. Bernards Medical Center, the most for a hospital in Arkansas.
