DaVinci Robotic Surgery 

Cutting-Edge Technology

Daniel Rukstalis, MD, director of urology at Geisinger Medical Center, is seated at the control console of the new robotic da Vinci Surgical System, a state-of-the-art surgical system that helps your surgeon see vital anatomical structures more clearly and to perform a more precise surgical procedure.

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"The future of surgery is here today at Geisinger," said William Strodel, MD, chairman of the division of surgery for Geisinger Health System. "The robotic surgery system supports our mission of providing patients with the most advanced surgical options offering the best results."

The urologic surgical team at Geisinger Medical Center recently cleared a urologic obstruction in a 60-year-old male patient from Hazleton using the da Vinci® Surgical System on October 19. Surgeons grasped and moved highly sensitive instruments at the console while viewing a greatly magnified image of the surgical area on a screen. The robot precisely matched their natural hand and wrist movements, translating them to the tiny instruments placed inside the patient through small puncture incisions.

The state-of-the-art surgical system allowed surgeons to operate on the patient while sitting at a console about eight feet away from the patient and four-armed robot.

Although the robot operated silently, it created quite a buzz in the hallways of Geisinger's operating suite. Surgeons, physicians and nurses crowded around the operating room window to try to get a better look. Daniel Rukstalis, MD, director of urology for Geisinger, noted that advanced surgical options, like robotic surgery, offer patients excellent results with smaller incisions, less pain and trauma and a quicker recovery time.

The da Vinci Surgical System, a product of Intuitive Surgical, of Sunnyvale, Calif., teams the honed skills of a surgeon with computer-enhanced robotic technology. Geisinger is the only healthcare provider in the region using robotics technology in the operating room.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the da Vinci Surgical System for use in performing many surgical procedures, including general laparoscopic surgery, thoracoscopic (chest) surgery, laparoscopic radical prostatectomies, and thoracoscopically assisted cardiotomy procedures. The da Vinci System has been successfully used in thousands of prostate cancer procedures worldwide.