SPRINGFIELD — PeaceHealth RiverBend this month added the latest in robotic technology to its surgical services, and as the name suggests, he is a smartie.
The da Vinci surgical robot has been assisting surgeons with laparoscopic or “keyhole” operations since 1999.
While keyhole surgeries — a minimally invasive approach through small incisions in the abdomen or pelvis — are less invasive to the patient, it can be manually intensive for surgeons; imagine the intensity of driving the instruments, retracting tissues, and holding the camera just right.
When it was first introduced 25 years ago, the robot included a patient cart with a camera and two surgical arms attached, a surgeon console for controlling the patient cart, and a vision cart that displays what the camera sees.
This technology has since made leaps and bounds.
The newest iteration of the da Vinci robot, the da Vinci 5 (dV5), has three surgical arms. According to Kathleen Yang, gynecologic oncologist at RiverBend, it also has an improved camera system, the energy source now allows surgeons to cauterize blood vessels, and surgeons have more control from the console.
The new da Vinci 5 surgical robot, set up and ready for a demo. EMBER HOLMAN / THE CHRONICLE
However, the most notable advancement in the DV5 is the addition of tactile feedback, Yang said. Now, not only can surgeons see what they’re doing, they can feel everything,.
“You can exert less force on the tissue and have even less damage,” said Kenzie Yakovich, obotics charge nurse. This function can be adjusted, allowing for veteran robotic surgeons to either adapt to the added sensation. However, no matter how prestigious the equipment is, it’s all useless without someone who can effectively run it.
“I think that as wonderful and magnificent as dV5 is as a surgical platform, I think that at its core it’s the people that matter,” Yang said. “We’d like to put that also as a highlight, not just the machine, because I can give you the shiniest chopsticks, doesn’t mean that you are a master at using chopsticks to eat.”
So far, 40 surgeons have been trained on the new device, Yang said, and the hospital is working to train a couple hundred more staff members, according to Troy Fowler, RiverBend’s robotics representative.
The device covers a wide range of services, including general surgery, spinal surgery, bariatric surgery, and more, Yang said.
The dV5 has been in development since 2014. It first hit the hospital’s radar in a meeting in March, and they bought one about a month ago, according to Yang. It has since been used in about 20 procedures, the first being completed by Yang on Monday, July 22, Fowler said.
RiverBend uses its surgical robots to the fullest extent, being the first hospital in Oregon to reach 10,000 robotic cases, Yakovich said. Yang has completed 20% – or 2,000 – of those surgeries.
Robotic surgeries are minimally invasive, so patients can expect a faster recovery, shorter hospital stay, and less pain.
“On postoperative visits, some patients would tell me that they were surprised how little pain they have,” Yang said. “They wonder if they had surgery at all, because recovery was so smooth.”
And because using the robot is much less laborious, surgeons are able to extend their careers by years, according to Yakovich.
RiverBend has three of the previous da Vinci models, but Yang hopes to upgrade all of them to the dV5 in the near future.
One of the biggest highlights of this program is that this amazing level of care can be found right down the street. “I think it’s great because you don’t need to leave town to get state of the art care,” Yakovich said, “I’m taking care of my community the best way possible here.”
