Shannon Health celebrated completing 5,000 procedures with the da Vinci Xi Surgical System Tuesday. The system was designed for procedures including gallbladder removal, hernia repair, colectomy, urological, GERD treatment and gynecological surgeries.
The da Vinci Xi Surgical System was designed with the goal of further advancing the technology used in minimally invasive surgery. Robotic surgery allows surgeons to have 3-D vision along with better digitalization, magnified vision and wrist-articulated instruments. The instruments function like a human wrist, with seven planes of movement.
This system is worth $1.5-2.5 million and has combined features to help minimize the risk to the patient and general surgeon, Dr. Benton Brown, is grateful the system is here in San Angelo so patients aren’t forced to travel far to receive necessary care.
“We love our community here in San Angelo so being able to keep people here and closer to home and closer to family is a game changer for us,” Brown said.
Brown also said if a patient needs the use of the da Vinci Xi surgical system to receive better care, it does not cost the patient money. This system is something that is used for the same surgery they would get prior to the creation of the system. Sometimes, the cost even improves for patients because they might not have to stay in the hospital as long and receive as much medication and less chances of complications.
This system brings a handful of changes to medical procedures at Shannon, because the robot allows surgeons to do larger surgeries that would otherwise take long days of hospitalizations, bad recoveries, and postoperative pains. When doing smaller incisions, it results in better recoveries and overall better access to things people need.
There are three da Vinci Xi Surgical Systems at Shannon, but Brown believes this is just the start of what’s to come in the technological advancements in healthcare of San Angelo.
