With estimates that roughly 15% of all surgeries use robots, an open house Tuesday afternoon at Northwest Health Porter in Valparaiso was a timely opportunity for the public to try out the technology for themselves.
The three-part DaVinci 5 Robotic System has been in use at the hospital for the past month.
Bryttney VanGoethem of LaPorte rearranged her schedule so she could see it in person. “My grandma is getting surgery done,” she said. “We found out she has colon cancer.”
General surgeon Jeremy Luedtke, whom the family will be meeting with in the coming weeks, has been using the DaVinci for the past three weeks and has experience with other robotic systems as well. He uses the robot for colon cancer surgery as well as inguinal hernia and gall bladder removal surgeries.
He said the benefits are considerable, from less pain and recovery time to speed of surgery and lower cost. Luedtke said the robot, which is fully operated in real time by the surgeon, is generally less disruptive of tissue than human hands.
“I always joke with my patients. I say, ‘Look at my hand,’” he says, splaying his meaty fingers. “That amount of tissue manipulation (by the robot) reduces pain.”
The DaVinci is a three-part system made up of a console at which the surgeon sits and manipulates the instruments via controllers; cameras and a screen fitted to the face; a tower that coordinates various cameras and insufflation, which is the filling of body cavities with gas so the surgeon has room to work and can see the interior of the body; and the robot, which is comprised of four arms.
Many instruments can be fitted on the arms for a variety of surgical needs, though two of them are always used for insufflation and cameras.
“I have pared down the number of instruments that I use because it helps with setup and cost-saving,” Luedtke said.
To highlight the improvement in recovery time patients can expect with robotic surgery, Luedtke gives an inguinal hernia repair as an example. A traditional surgery would require at least eight weeks of recovery with the patient restricted to lifting less than 10 pounds while being sent home with 30 narcotic painkillers.
Robotic surgery reduces recovery time to four weeks with a lifting limit of 20 pounds and only three narcotic pills. “A lot of times people are not even filling them,” Luedtke said of the drug.
VanGoethem got a chance to sit at the console and control the robotic arms. It’s a technology that was developed by NASA in the late ‘70s, Luedtke said.
“It was really neat,” VanGoethem said of the experience.
Ten-year-old Addison Martin, of Valparaiso, got to try out the robot her dad, surgeon Andrew Martin, uses for general and bariatric surgeries at Northwest Health’s Porter and LaPorte campuses.
“It was fun because it’s like video games,” she said. Andrew Martin has been performing surgeries with robotics for the past five years.
He said he employs robots in 60% of his surgeries. “The things that we can use it for, we do, because it helps with patient recovery,” he said. “We’re still operating the robot. It’s not like it’s an autonomous thing.”
There are some circumstances where robotics are contraindicated in surgery, such as when a patient has had many other surgeries that resulted in too much scar tissue, or cannot tolerate being under full anesthesia.
James Fastero, clinical sales manager with DaVinci maker Intuitive Surgical, said the Porter campus has been using the DaVinci XI model since 2014. He said the indication of use has grown over the last 10 to 15 years for robotics in soft tissue surgeries.
Fastero said robotic surgery is equal to or has surpassed laproscopic surgery frequency. The “wristed” instrumentation of the robot is considered more agile than the “straight stick” design of laproscopic devices. He said robotic surgery is more widespread in Northwest Indiana than people realize. The benefits don’t stop with the patient, but also apply to the surgeon.
“They (the surgeons) can sit down. They can be more comfortable. They can have better vision and better instruments,” he said.
Medical schools are also on board, turning out new doctors ready to hit the ground sitting down at those robotic consoles for many future surgeries. Fastero said 80% of all residency fellows complete their training with some experience on robots.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
