Staff Report
Published July 12, 2012

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System introduced three procedures to its list of robotic-surgery offerings with the addition of new technology.

Surgical teams at Spartanburg Regional already have performed more than 3,000 robotic procedures for urology, gynecology, gynecologic oncology, cardiac and thoracic. 

The three new robotic procedures are sleeve gastrectomy, revisional weight-loss surgery and splenectomy.

“This robotic surgical system allows us to expand the breadth of our weight-loss surgery program,” said Dr. Jason Johnson. “We will expand the robot-assisted surgeries soon to include gastric bypass and LapBand where it is appropriate.”

The newest robotic technology from da Vinci Surgical System has high-definition visualization, fluorescent imaging and is Intuitive Surgical’s latest and most advanced platform.

Fluorescence imaging technology allows tissue and surrounding blood vessels to be illuminated by a special dye when exposed to the near-infrared light, causing a glow-in-the-dark effect. This feature allows the surgeons to better map the patient’s vascular anatomy and gives surgeons anatomical landmarks to improve surgical precision during kidney sparing surgery.

Most patients who have robotic surgery experience less pain, less risk of infection, less scaring, a faster recovery time, less blood loss, a shorter hospital stay, quicker return to work and an overall less invasive surgery, the hospital system said.