BRASELTON — People northeast of Atlanta now have access to the latest robotic surgery technology, closer to home.
Alex Nguyen, MD, a surgeon with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group, performed robotic surgeries on Monday at Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) Braselton using the da Vinci Xi Surgical System. NGMC Braselton is part of Northeast Georgia Health System, which is just the second healthcare group in the state using the new robotic system.
“We’ve performed robotic surgeries at NGMC Gainesville for the past seven years, and this new robot means we can perform the same surgeries better and faster than ever before,” says Dr. Nguyen. “The new design features robotic arms overhead, which gives us access to more of the patient’s body without stopping to reposition the patient or the robot. It’s amazing.”
Like the original da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, the Xi is designed for performing minimally-invasive surgery – similar to traditional laparoscopic surgery – that can result in less pain, smaller scars and faster recovery compared to traditional surgeries.
“With the addition of the da Vinci Xi in Braselton, our robotically-trained surgeons can choose which facility is best for each patient,” says Andrew Green, MD, a surgeon with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group Gynecologic Oncology and medical director of Robotic Surgical Program at NGMC. “And having two robots in Gainesville and one in Braselton for use at the same time means we’ll be able to offer the benefits of robotic surgery to more patients when it’s right for them.”
Surgeons guide the da Vinci Xi’s robotic arms, equipped with long, skinny surgical instruments and a camera, into the patient’s abdomen or chest through relatively small incisions – sometimes as small as a dime. Then, using a control system, the surgeon views the camera’s real-time feed of 3D HD video and remotely moves the arms to perform the procedure within the patient's body.
Through the expertise of 20 specially trained surgeons on staff, NGMC’s Robotic Surgical Program has successfully treated more than 2,500 patients across a range of specialties including general surgery, bariatric weight loss surgery, colorectal, oncology and gynecological oncology cases.
Learn more at www.nghs.com/robotic-surgery.
