The da Vinci® Surgical System -
Robotic-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery

For years, minimally invasive surgery has allowed physicians to perform many types of surgical procedures through small incisions. For most patients, a minimally invasive procedure offers substantially less pain, less blood loss and a much shorter recovery.

However, the surgeons of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital are proud to bring the most minimally invasive surgical technology currently available close to home - the da Vinci® Surgical System. This new technology offers more enhanced benefits to traditional minimally invasive procedures, such as:

• Shorter hospital stay
• Less pain and scarring
• Less risk of infection
• Less blood loss and fewer transfusions
• Faster recovery
• Quicker return to normal activities

How Robotic-Assisted Surgery Works
The new da Vinci® Surgical System allows for a surgeon's movements to be even more precise by using "robotic hands" as extensions of this own. These "robotic hands" go where human hands typically cannot. Guided by the surgeon, the da Vinci® robot mimics the natural movement of the hands, wrists and fingers. While using tiny surgical tools, a surgeon can create incisions no larger than the size of a dime and perform the most delicate of procedures.

The da Vinci® Surgical System is designed with a surgeon's console from where the robotic arms are controlled with the surgeon's own hands. The instruments extending from the robotic arms then translate the surgeon's own movements to perform the procedure. The da Vinci® Surgical System has been successfully used in tens of thousands of minimally invasive procedures worldwide.

At Good Shepherd Hospital, robotic-assisted surgery is available to patients for the following procedures:

• Prostate Cancer (Downloadable Brochure)
• Gastric Bypass (Downloadable Brochure)
• Mitral Valve Repair (Downloadable Brochure)
• General Surgery

If you are required to have minimally invasive surgery, you and your doctor can discuss the option of a robotic-assisted procdedure.

Physicians Performing Robotic-Assisted Procedures