A lesson on the intricate detail of the Lincoln Memorial came from a most unexpected place Friday morning: the Robotic Surgery Expo at Mary Washington Hospital.
People attending Mary Washington Healthcare’s (MWHC) inaugural Robotic Surgery Expo were able to try their hand on the hospital’s cutting-edge Da Vinci 5 Robotic Surgery System. That machine was moved from the Fredericksburg hospital’s operating room to the atrium for the Friday event.
The “patients” being treated under the system’s four surgical arms Friday were a $5 bill, a stuffed-animal monkey and assorted candy-bar wrappers. With just a little training, participants were able to peer through the camera, use their thumbs and middle fingers to make the surgical arms pick up the $5, and magnify it for closer review.
The machine’s crystal-clear resolution clearly showed an element of the Lincoln Memorial that could be easily missed by the naked eye looking at a $5 bill — the names of the states etched on the memorial’s frieze. With the assistance of the Da Vinci 5, the state names were clear as day.
That power and precision helps to explain why more and more surgeries are now being done using advanced robotics such as the Da Vinci 5, said Dr. Avinash Narayana, who leads MWHC’s robotics surgery team. In early October, Narayana became the first surgeon in the greater Washington area to operate using Intuitive’s Da Vinci 5 (it was a gall-bladder removal). Mary Washington Hospital has two of the systems, and Stafford Hospital has one. Additional systems are coming to both hospitals.
Narayana said MWHC has been using robotics in surgery since 2008, but lately the healthcare system has stepped up its investments and training in the equipment. That’s no small investment; Narayana said each Da Vinci 5 system, for example, costs about $2.5 million and has an approximately 10-year life.
But he said it’s an investment worth making due to the precision of the equipment and the resulting improved patient outcomes. Among the most common surgical categories using the equipment, he said, are colorectal, gynecological, urological and thoracic.
“It’s a big commitment for Mary Washington to bring this to the community,” Narayana said.
The Da Vinci 5 isn’t the only robotic surgery system that MWHC uses and put on display at Friday’s Expo. MWHC also deploys the Ion Robotic System, the ROSA Knee System and the VELYS™ Robotic-Assisted Solution.
Mary Washington Healthcare is a founding donor of the Free Press. Donors do not influence newsroom operations.
