Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
Ask the Experts
What are the advantages of robotic surgery for fibroid treatment?
Dr. Jason Bromer, Reproductive Science Center of New Jersey: Robotic surgery has been available as a technology
for greater than 20 years now.
But its applications to gynecology and reproductive medicine have really just been realized in the last four or five years.
In the setting of myomectomy, which is removing fibroids from the uterus, it's been traditionally believed
that for patients who want to maintain their fertility, fibroids would need to be removed through an open incision,
which would require a few nights' stay in the hospital after the procedure, and usually around the order of four to six weeks
off from work before they can get back to their normal lives, because it's a very invasive, difficult procedure.
Myomectomies have been able to be done laparoscopically in the past,
but because of the limitations of traditional laparoscopic instruments, we don't have the facility to reconstruct the uterus
in a way that would make it safe for patients to be pregnant afterwards.
So, patients who wanted to spare their fertility really were told they needed this open, invasive procedure.
Robotic surgery, because of the additional control we get in operating the instruments,
allows us to close the uterus and reconstruct the uterus in the same fashion that we could do with an open procedure.
Now, a patient who would like to have a myomectomy and maintain their fertility can have the minimally invasive surgery
with, essentially, going home the same day from the hospital. Our patients don't usually even stay overnight in the hospital.
And we tell them that they will be getting back to their normal activities, frequently, within a week.
So, that is a very clear advantage for robotic surgery in the setting of myomectomy. 0:01:50.000,0:01:52.000 (text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source