Jackson hospital performs first da Vinci robotic surgery

Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 8:00 pm

Jackson-Madison County General Hospital made another breakthrough in robotic surgery last week. 
On the heels of celebrating more than 1,000 robotic surgeries, General Hospital is now the first in the state to perform a da Vinci robotically-assisted removal of a gallbladder through a single small incision. 
Each year, about one million people in the U.S. will undergo gallbladder removal and more than 40 percent of these patients are women ages 18 to 44.  
“We are so excited to be the first hospital in the state to use da Vinci robotic surgery to reduce the number of incisions from four to one to remove a patient’s gallbladder.
This single incision procedure enters the abdomen through the belly button, potentially leaves no visible scar and usually allows the patient to be home in a few hours.  
This is a very positive  development for our patients and another choice to offer them, along with other minimally invasive procedures,” said  Marty Fordham, Vice President of  Hospital Services.
General surgeon Harvey Harmon, MD with the Jackson Clinic and General Surgeon Daniel Day, MD with Jackson Surgical Associates were among the first at the hospital to receive special training to perform this new procedure and say they are honored to use this training. 
“The procedure went very well today.  This Single-Site da Vinci robotic platform provides surgeons with amazing dexterity, control and high-definition 3D vision and is far less invasive,” said Harmon.
According to Day, “Robot assisted laparoscopic surgery represents a significant advance from the traditional laparoscopic approach first utilized for the removal of the gallbladder 27 years ago. It is very gratifying to be able to offer this approach, along with its benefits, to my patients as Jackson-Madison County General Hospital becomes a leader in robotic surgery.
This hospital is among only a handful in the country to offer single site da Vinci gallbladder procedures.”
“This is the next step in surgical advancement and I am excited that our hospital is the first in Tennessee to provide this for our patients.  West Tennesseans don’t have to travel away from home to receive the latest in surgical procedures that mean less pain, less scarring and quicker recovery,” said Harmon.     
Fordham says as surgical instruments continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, the future holds other  general surgery uses for this robotic technology, as well as other applications in the fields of urological, gynecological and cardiovascular surgery.
Published in The WCP 3.27.12