How the system works
 The surgeon, who works at a console several feet from the patient, views the highresolution, 3-D surgical field on the console screen.
 With hands and wrists naturally positioned, the surgeon manipulates instrument controls positioned below the display screen.
 InSite® vision software seamlessly transmits the surgeon’s hand, wrist and finger movements to the ultra-sensitive EndoWrist® instruments positioned inside the robotic arms.
 Through 1-CM ports, the instruments immediately execute the commands. Each instrument has a specific mission – such as clamping, suturing or severing – and is designed with seven degrees of motion to precisely mimic the surgeon’s dexterity.
 At the patient’s side, the surgical team prepares the ports, installs and changes instruments and supervises the robotic arms.
 The InSite Vision System – also visible on the surgeon’s display – enhances, refines and optimizes 3-D images of the operative field.
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A surgical robot that integrates the best features of minimally invasive and open surgery is now operating at University Hospital. The da Vinci Surgical System® was added this year to the hospital’s arsenal of advanced surgical technology, at a cost of more than $1 million.
The investment made sense to University Hospital because it offers clear advantages to patients.
“The da Vinci system reduces the size of the surgical incision, the length of stay, postoperative pain and risk of infection,” reports Charles Lutz MD, the first University Hospital surgeon to operate with the new system.
For the surgeon, the da Vinci system retains – and even enhances – the advantages of open surgery, including direct 3-D visualization, full range of motion and an intuitive sense of control.
Lutz, who is fellowship trained in cardiac surgery and has completed special training with the da Vinci system, is most impressed by the robot’s dexterity and precision. “This device does things the surgeon’s hands cannot physically do.”
“It makes the right and left hand ambidextrous. It eliminates any tremor. It scales back delicate hand movements to an even more precise level. It allows us to perform more complex procedures through pencil-sized incisions. And it never gets tired.”
The robotic system also allows the surgeon to operate with natural hand-eye coordination while seated at a console five feet from the patient. The instrument’s movements at the patient mimic the surgeon’s hand movements at the console. When the surgeon turns the controls clockwise, the robot’s instruments turn clockwise. Standard laparoscopic surgery is counter-intuitive, with the surgeon working from a mirror image of the operating field.
Initially available for mitral valve repair mammary artery harvesting and coronary artery bypass, the da Vinci system will eventually be used for gastric bypass surgery, prostatectomy and various pediatric procedures performed by University Hospital surgeons.
University Hospital’s da Vinci system is one of only 210 available in the United States, Europe and Japan. It was the first surgical robot system to be judged safe and effective by the US Food and Drug Administration.
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