Robotic Surgery
What is robotic surgery?
Legacy Health offers robotic surgery at Legacy Emanuel, Legacy Good Samaritan, Legacy Meridian Park, Legacy Mount Hood, Legacy Salmon Creek, and Legacy Silverton Medical Centers. Many Legacy Health surgeons are also trained in non-robotic minimally invasive techniques. Talk to your doctor about whether robotic-assisted surgery is the best choice for you.
Learn more about robotic options for these surgeries:
The benefits of robotic procedures
- A robot allows greater surgical precision. The robot holds miniature instruments and can be manipulated with more agility and in ways impossible for a human hand.
- Robotic surgery is "laparoscopic," meaning minimally invasive, when compared to traditional "open" surgery. Instead of one long incision, the surgeon makes smaller incisions that are a mere 1/4- to 1/2-inch in length. Minimally invasive surgery, as compared to open surgery, results in:
- Less blood loss
- Reduced chance of infection
- Less prominent scarring
- Shorter hospital stay and recovery time
- For most patients, minimally invasive surgery also yields less pain, reducing the need for pain medication and minimizing the length of time you'd need to take it.
- All this can lead to much shorter recovery times and a quicker return to normal activities.
Surgeon at the controls
During robotic surgery the surgeon — not the robot — controls every aspect of the procedure from a console in the operating room.
A slender camera inserted through a surgical opening transmits sharp, three-dimensional images to the console, and the surgeon holds master controls, much like forceps, to manipulate the robotic controls. A surgical nurse stays at the patient's side while the anesthesiologist and other team members monitor the patient's condition.
