Robotic assisted surgery

I've been doing robotic cases for 1 1/2 years and it's been a great learning experience. We mainly do urology and thoracic cases with the robot and it's a lot to set up for those cases. I do mostly thoracic cases and if there was a robotic prostate the night before, I had to go in extra early to set up the room because their robot/console setup is completely different from ours.

What type of cases do you use the robot on? In a typical week, we do about 5-6 prostates and 2-4 VATS. We sometimes do 3 prostates in a day and that can get hectic in between cases because we only have 1 set of instruments. It's always a mad rush to break everthing down and send instruments to be processed for the next case.

To add another ? to the post:

The hospital I'm working for is looking to obtain this for our OR. We have 8 OR suites so while we're getting quite busy, it isn't a "huge" facility nor are our staffing numbers. We are starting up a specialized neuro team and I was wondering your opinion on needing specialized staff for the robotic cases as well. I only have (currently) 10 or so nurses to fill my day and off shifts but have 3 on orientation so there is hope.

What are your thoughts since you've used the robot??

We were able to "play" with the device when it was brought for all to see and it was very impressive and actually fun to play with but I don't know how it will be during actual patient use/cases.

Thanks in advance

We do have a designated staff for the robot because there's a lot of technical things to learn. The staff needs to know where to place the console, robot and the monitors depending on what procedure you are doing. Our OR has 13 rooms and we have 6 nurses and 5 techs trained to use the robot (including day and off shifts). For the first case, it takes us about 45 minutes to set up, and the subsequent cases take much less time because the robot is already all hooked up.

All our surgeons went through training before starting the robot, and we have robotic classes for our staff in the OR. I was told that when we first started using the robot for prostates, the case would take 8 hours. Now, we do 3 prostates a day and we are done by 7 p.m.

we use isop (not sure if thats how its spelled) for lap prostatectomies and think it is great as you dont lose a hand just for the scope. The room we use it in is renovated and set up in a very technologically friendly way its the room we do most lap cases so its not to much extra to do aside from bringing the machine in, changing the input to svideo and plugging the surgeon in.

and the surgeon can take over control anytime if isop isn't working.

Keep in mind though I am a new nurse in the OR and haven't seen much and am an extra while circulating so maby it is a bigger deal when there is no extra.

:)

We, too have dedicated staff for robotics. We really vary with the quantity of cases. As little a 3 in a month and as much as 2 in a week. (still not alot, I know) Slow to catch on here for some reason. We just started robotic hysterectomies - we do prostatectomies, pyeloplasties, and sacral colpopexies alot. CVOR hasn't done a robotics case in over a year.

If your institution is going to get one, Intuitive now has a new "s" class robot. Lower profile, and motorized rollers, with screens on the robot. I have heard about it, but never even yet seen a brochure.

I would encourage a robotics program at any institution with willing surgeons.

Hi all,

I see that this thread is quite old, but as the new RC for robotic surgery at my facility I am interested in improving turnover times. Curious as to what type of turnover times you have at your facility if the same surgeon, team and robot follow themselves in the same room. No additional help for set-up, 1-SCT and 1 circulating RN. Until this week we only had 1 surgeon doing 2 cases per day, which are colpopexy's. Our turn over for those is around 1 hour but we have 3 back tables for him (1 clean for robotics, 1 dirty for lady partsl work and 1 cysto -- LOTS of instruments!!!). We now have one of our urologist who is going to do 2 prostates in a day and I am hoping for a MUCH faster turnover (less stuff to open). How does your facility do on turnovers on these types of procedures and do you have any tips that might help?

Thanks

AlwaysLearning, RN

I am the RC for robotic surgery at my facility and I too struggle with turnover time. I'm not sure about your facility but my physicians say they have terrible turnover times when realistically they consider their time out of the as out time. We average about 35 minutes but I think it could be better. Anyone have any ideas?

Love the S class robot...and turnover time is always an issue for the surgeons since they haven't grasped the concept of the patient leaving the room. One of the facilities I work at has a designated robot room and have 3 back up trays to eliminate turnover time issue. They schedule only specialty specific cases per day in the robot room so it's always same cases all day.