HOUSTON – Robots are taking over the operating room.
These days, more and more surgeons are using robots to help them out. As technology improves, the safety, accuracy and recovery only gets better.
Nearly 300 robotic surgeons from all over the world are here in Houston for the next few days exchanging ideas and looking at the latest robotic surgical equipment.
Who knew a robot could save peoples lives and drastically change them too?
“Seriously, my whole life I have dealt with being heavy, and I just thought this is almost my last chance to get it under control,” said Ashley Falco, a gastric bypass patient.
A 2nd grade teacher, Falco used to weigh over 250 pounds. She struggled with self-confidence and battled high blood pressure, but a robot-assisted gastric bypass turned her life around.
“I no longer take my blood pressure medicine. I just feel more active, I have a ton more energy,” Falco said.
Dr. Erik Wilson and his robot helped her drop 75 pounds.
“It feels good to go shopping finally and not just have to buy shoes because that’s the only thing that fits,” she said.
Wilson says robots are actually doing many different kinds of serious surgeries.
“Major liver, stomach, pancreatic, colon, things for cancer that normally you would have to be opened up … bariatric, surgery weight loss, reflux, hernia repairs.”
And they can be done in a minimally invasive way.
“The robotic platform allows us to do operations through tiny holes in situations where we would have to open patients up with a big incision on the abdomen or the chest or the neck,” Wilson said.
Smaller incisions mean a lesser chance of infection.
“Get patients to recover quicker, get back to their normal activities, have shorter hospital stays, no pain, or fewer scars or no scars,” he said.
Robots also allow surgeons to do a better job. So how does it work?
“You can dock the robot over the patient pelvis, head, chest, or even over their mouth. I can move my hands inside the console, and it’s doing the exact same thing inside the patient, and I have foot pedals that I can toggle and control the camera. You basically feel like you’re inside a patient and when you move your hands inside the space, you’re actually moving the instruments inside the patient,” Wilson said.
He believes robots will allow surgeons to prolong their career and Falco believes they’ll help prolong human life.
“What does our future hold if this robot helped change my life? Whose life will it change next and what other surgeries can it help with?” Falco asked.
With a robot, surgeons can also use fluorescent lighting and see in 3D, allowing them to see, find and dissect in ways they never could before.
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