AMORY, Miss. (WTVA) - It's a million dollar investment of technology that's now being used to perform general surgery procedures.
After using the daVinci SI Surgical Robot on certain procedures over the past 18 months, the Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center is now performing certain general surgery procedures such as gallblader removal, hernia repair and colon resections.
"The robotic surgery is in most cases less painful than traditional surgery," said Dwayne Blaylock, CEO of the Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center. "It's a growing way of performing these surgeries."
Here's a unique aspect with robotic surgery: when the surgeon is performing the operation with the daVinci, they do it by looking into a console. They're not standing directly over the patient who is laying down on a bed.
"The staff, technicians and doctors are attending to the patient, but the surgeon himself is actually seated away from the patient," adds Blaylock. "[They are] controlling the arms of the robot from that position."
For those who operate the controls, there are several guidelines they have to master before they can operate on a patient.
"They must take a practice lab where they work on it," adds Blaylock. "[They] also have to be proctored by another surgeon who is trained in [operating] the robot."
Despite it being relatively new to the medical industry, the daVinci SI Surgical Robot is being used on a regular basis.
"This is the fastest growing aspect of surgery, the robotic surgery for all types of specialty," adds Blaylock. "We're certainly proud to have it in northeast Mississippi."
For patients of this type of surgery, it means less pain and blood loss along with a shorter recovery time.
The robot is called "da Vinci" in part because the inventor of the first robot was Leonardo da Vinci.
