Robotic surgery delivers a faster recovery, especially when time is of the essence.
When Ginny Ross was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she chose to have a total hysterectomy with Dr. Bradley Corr, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at St. Mary’s.
“For a lot of uterine cancers, minimally invasive surgery with the robot is the standard of care,” explains Dr. Corr. “The robot is completely under our control. We are standing at the bedside at the console doing the entire surgery. We’re just using the robotic hands instead of ours. It allows us a lot of finesse and a lot of capabilities that we couldn’t do otherwise.”
Ginny needed a fast recovery. The cancer had spread, and she needed to begin a course of chemotherapy. A traditional open surgery could have delayed her cancer treatment by up to eight weeks while she healed. Instead, 30 days after undergoing her minimally invasive hysterectomy, Ginny started chemotherapy.
“My time in the hospital was considered outpatient because I didn’t have to spend the night,” says Ginny. “I went in and had the surgery, then I was in recovery. I actually walked to my car.”
For gynecologic surgeries, the robotic surgical approach is associated with less pain, less blood loss, fewer complications, less scarring, shorter hospital stays, and better outcomes for complex conditions.
“We know that a recovery with a robotic surgery is far quicker than with an open surgery,” says Dr. Corr. “With an open surgery, a patient is generally in the hospital for two to four days and they have a longer healing time, anywhere from about six to eight weeks, whereas with a minimally invasive robotic procedure, the patient goes home on the same day and often is healed within four weeks.”
Ginny healed from her surgery in minimal time with minimal scarring. “I wouldn’t have done it any other way. It’s noninvasive, you recover quickly, and of course, Dr. Corr knows what he’s doing.” Ginny says,” I couldn’t have asked for a better doctor and hospital.”
