Here is some good news for those diagnosed with uterine, endometrial, and cervical cancer. Experts from the Jewish General Hospital’s Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research in Montreal have developed robot-assisted surgery that seems to enhance outcomes in patients suffering from uterine, endometrial and cervical cancer. Due to fewer post-operative complications and shorter hospital stays robotic procedures may also cost less.
While performing the robot-assisted surgery, a patient is subjected to the robot-assisted operating room, wherein a physician sits at a computer console and manipulates multiple robot arms. The newly introduced technology supposedly surpasses the limitations of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), namely difficult procedures like laparoscopy for cancer. Robot-assisted surgery probably declines hospital stays and employs less narcotic pain medication.
“To the contrary, robotic surgery definitely benefits patients and society. Patient quality of life is dramatically improved, their hospital stays are much shorter and they use far less narcotic pain medication. The majority of our patients need nothing stronger than Tylenol,†commented Dr. Walter H. Gotlieb, Head of Gynecologic Oncology at the JGH Segal Cancer Centre.
During the study, patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer were made to undergo either laparoscopy or robotic surgery. As a result, 15 percent patients from laparoscopy and 95 percent using robotic surgery reported positive results. Although cervical cancer did not face similar treatments, it is predicted that the robot-assisted surgery will help patients with this disease.
The study was published last year in The Journal of Robotic Surgery and The International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.