Less pain. Shorter hospital stay. Faster recovery. These are some of the benefits experienced by patients who have undergone surgery via the da Vinci Surgical System. Incorporating modern robotics into the operating room, this system is now available at St. Vincent’s for certain urological procedures.

Manufactured by Intuitive Surgical, the da Vinci Surgical System is a new tool for physicians that incorporate modern robotics into the operating room. The da Vinci Surgical System consists of a surgeon's console, a patient side cart, a 3-D vision system and proprietary surgical instruments.

The da Vinci Surgical System's surgical instruments are the same diameter of a pencil and the ends of the instruments are the size of a dime. The ends of the instruments are modeled after the human wrist and give the surgeon a wide range of motion to work with.

Using the da Vinci Surgical System, the surgeon operates while seated comfortably at a console viewing a 3-d image of the surgical field. The surgeon's fingers grasp the instrument controls below the display with wrists naturally positioned relative to his or her eyes. Intuitive's technology seamlessly translates the surgeon's movements into precise, real-time movements of the surgical instruments inside the patient.

The da Vinci Surgical System provides the surgeon with the intuitive control, range of motion, fine tissue manipulation capability and 3-d visualization characteristics of open surgery, while simultaneously allowing the surgeon to work through small ports of minimally invasive surgery. For the patient, numerous benefits are derived from using the da Vinci system in surgery. Some of these benefits include reduced trauma, less pain, shorter hospital stay and faster recovery.