daVinci robotic surgery

CIRQL8 · Jan 16, 2007

I tried starting a thread like this before - it didn't take off.

I think that robotic surgery is going to take off. It will take LOTS of time though. The extra time for docking the robot (even jsut a couple of minutes) is a big turn off for physicians. They do not like the learning curve to get used to it. Staff has trouble adjusting to the added set-up as well.

I'm the robot team leader at my hospital, and personally, I like it. I think that eventually, it will catch on more.

Maybe it will be common by the time I retire (in about 25 years...)

KristinWW · Jan 20, 2007

I believe in robotics, although we don't have DaVinci at my facility. I've heard from another place that it keeps breaking. Any one else have problems? I'd love to get my hands on it!

CIRQL8 · Jan 23, 2007

We've had the machine 'break down' on us once in two years, and two or three times the extra instrument arm faulted. In the case of the arm, we were able to continue with the three major arms (one camera, two instrument). Service is excellent (better be w/ a 100,000-ish dollar annual upkeep fee!). Responds to the facility within 24-36 hours, with the item needing to be replaced (fault codes tell them what part(s) they need).

I will be attending a robotics coordinator program this February. I'm sure that I will learn a lot more then!

Rezidentura · Feb 2, 2007

Robotic Surgery is definetly the future. I got trained at the John Hopkins DaVinci lab and the Doc who was training us had a lot of incite on this. As The bandwith necessary to facilitate long distance DaVinci procedures is brought on line I think you see an increase in these.

Can you say "Replacement".

mikethern · Feb 3, 2007

Robotic Surgery is definetly the future. I got trained at the John Hopkins DaVinci lab and the Doc who was training us had a lot of incite on this.

Half of my retirement funds are invested in ISRG, the company that makes the davinci robot, so I hope you're right.

tewdles, RN · Sep 27, 2011

I do not work in OR, but I recently had a DaVinci colectomy completed and my post op experience was MUCH better than that of my good friend and husband who both had more traditional surgical colectomy procedures.

I had 4 or 5 "stab" wounds, they each had large abd incisions, drains, and much lengthier recoveries. I will take the DaVinci approach over open belly any ol' time.

ORoxyO · Sep 27, 2011

We have three robots where I was trained. It does take more time to set up and get going but once you get the flow down with a good group it is not bad at all. I was nervous to learn it but now it's great. We have so many new procedure that are being done every day- I bet it will keep going! Some of the procedures do seem silly to do with a robot, but I guess whatever floats the doc's boat.

tewdles, RN · Sep 28, 2011

Each procedure is practice, right?

tariett · Feb 16, 2012

We launched a 5 specialty program 11 months ago, got our second robot 2 months ago and have been growing weekly. I have surgeons that have taken to the robot and some that are still on the fence. I really believe that it takes dedicated surgeons and a dedicated team to make a program work. I'm very lucky to work with both.

I am a Davinci coordinator that has been lucky enough to go to both the Intuituve Coordinator's course and have recently been able to take my entire team to the Texas Robotics Institute "OR Bootcamp" (love----!) It's been a long hard road and we still have much to learn but our patient outcomes have been great.

Everyone needs to realize that this is a tool. It's only going to work as well as the surgeon is willing to commit and the team is willing to commit. If both work together it's an awesome tool to help our patients.

I would have a robotic lap chole or VAT's ANYDAY vs laparoscopic. I am still fighting many issues and obstacles (read OR culture, management, administration) but with each case we learn and grow.

If anyone has positioning problems or any other types of questions let me know. I'm more than willing to share our problems and solutions. We need to stick together!! This is the way surgery is headed, whether people want to recognize it or not.