Mountain View, CA - November 11, 2009 - El Camino Hospital, the hospital of Silicon Valley, expands its minimally invasive surgical program to three da Vinci Si HD Surgical Systems. Physicians performed more than 500 robotic surgeries over the past year and expect the number to increase in 2010 as more physicians undergo training with the enhanced equipment that allows for more minimally invasive procedures. The new systems feature enhanced three-dimensional, high-definition vision with superior visual clarity of target tissue and anatomy.
El Camino Hospital surgeons will perform prostate cancer, gynecologic and bariatric surgeries with the systems. One new system will be located at the hospital’s Los Gatos campus, with one new and one upgraded system in Mountain View.
"By extending this important technology to El Camino Hospital Los Gatos, it demonstrates the on-going commitment to bringing world-class healthcare to the Los Gatos community," said Eric Pifer, M.D., president, El Camino Hospital Los Gatos and chief medical officer at El Camino Hospital.
The hospital will now have two systems in Mountain View and one system in Los Gatos to support the growing market need. Currently, 25 surgeons are trained in robotic assisted surgery and more surgeons will receive training in the next year. "The strong interest among our surgeons in using this equipment has come because of the system’s potential to allow them to more efficiently and precisely perform minimally invasive surgeries, which in turn improves patient experiences and outcomes," said Pifer.
The system's instrumentation offers exceptional motor control and natural dexterity, allowing the robotic arms to essentially become an extension of the surgeon's own hands--but with the benefit of full range of motion that's otherwise not possible.
"Surgeries with the assistance of these new state-of-the art systems have the potential to let patients have shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, less pain, less scarring and quicker recovery times," said Albert Pisani, M.D., a board-certified gynecologic oncologist on staff at El Camino Hospital who has performed more than a quarter of the robotic surgeries at the hospital including the "da Vinci Hysterectomy" with lymph node removal for gynecologic cancers.
"El Camino Hospital has performed more than 500 robotic surgery cases in the last year," said CEO Ken Graham. "It is a proven technique, and we expect the upgraded systems will help our surgeons get closer to our goal to be in the top five percent of hospitals in the United States for quality across all clinical areas by 2012."
El Camino Hospital first began conducting procedures with the da Vinci System in the spring of 2007. Since then, the hospital’s specialized robotic surgery team has used the da Vinci System to treat hundreds of cancers of the prostate, uterus, bariatric surgeries, and ob-gyn/ benign disease conditions.
About the da Vinci Surgical System
The da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic surgical system that facilitates complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach. A surgeon controls the system's four interactive robotic arms from the console. The fourth arm is an endoscopic camera that allows the surgeon a full stereoscopic, 3-D image of the procedure while maneuvering the arms with two foot pedals and hand controllers. The da Vinci System scales, filters and translates the surgeon's hand movements into more precise micro-movements of the instruments to perform complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions. The updated and simplified user interface is designed to enhance operating room efficiency and increase surgeon control of system settings and adjustments. Newly upgradeable architecture and compatibility with existing OR suite technology facilitates the seamless integration of the da Vinci Si System into the OR of the twenty-first century. In addition, new ergonomic settings and adjustments to the surgeon console allows greater surgeon comfort and efficiency.