It’s a first of its kind in Slidell. Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore is now offering state-of-the-art robotic surgery, or robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, at its campus on Medical Center Drive.
The latest in cutting edge technology, robotic surgery is designed to provide patients with minimally invasive surgical options. This technology now allows surgeons at Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore to perform complex procedures, including surgery for prostate cancer, hernias, kidney tumors, weight-loss/bariatrics, and obstructed kidneys, with improved outcomes.
For most patients, when compared to conventional surgery, robotic surgery can result in significantly less pain, less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, shorter recovery periods and a quicker return to normal daily activities.
“This cutting edge technology offers a whole new level of surgical capabilities,” said Dr. Michael Pinsky, Urology, Robotic Surgery, Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore. “This revolutionary approach to minimally invasive surgery allows surgeons more precision, better sparing of healthy normal tissue and the ability to shorten the patient’s recovery time and hospital stay.”
Instead of making traditional open surgical incisions, the surgeon operates through small laparoscopic incisions. Unlike pure laparoscopic surgeries, the surgeon is not holding the instruments in his or her hands at the patient’s bedside. Instead, the surgical robot attaches to the instruments and the system translates the surgeon’s hand movements from a control panel into smooth precise movements of these instruments. The system’s endoscope (or camera) gives the surgeon a magnified, high definition, 3D view inside a patient’s body.
“The surgeon is still performing the surgery,” says Dr. Pinsky, making the important distinction that the robot isn’t performing the surgery itself. “The surgical robot is just the latest tool in a surgeon’s arsenal to enhance and perfect surgical techniques of necessary procedures for our patients and provides greater range of motion, more flexibility and better control during the operation.”
Surgeons include:
•Michael Pinsky, MD, Urology
•Gary Wolf, MD, General Surgery
•Josh Parks, MD, General Surgery
•Richard Leblanc, MD, General Surgery
•Ace Gridley, MD, Bariatric Surgery, General Surgery