FLINT, MI – The future of some surgical procedures puts sight, feeling and ability not only in the hands of a surgeon but also with a robot counterpart.

Hurley Medical Center's surgical robot 5 Gallery: Hurley Medical Center's surgical robot

No more shaky hands to worry about. Vision will be three-dimensional and significantly magnified.

For the past two months, surgeons at Hurley Medical Center have been using the da Vinci Si Surgical System to assist in certain laparoscopic surgeries. Using the robotic system brings benefits such as less pain, blood loss and chance of infection, as well as quicker recovery time, as surgery is done through incisions 1 to 2 centimeters long.

So far, about 30 surgeries have been done using the da Vinci system, said Dr. Greg Lecea, gynecologist and robotics committee chairman at Hurley.

“These (instruments) become your hands,” he said. “It’s incredible. The device is incredible and how the patients do after surgery is remarkable.”

The hospital has one of the 73 da Vinci systems used in Michigan as of June 30, said a spokeswoman from Intuitive Surgical, which produces the da Vinci system. The average cost of the surgical robot is around $1.5 million.

Hurley has been mainly focusing on gynecological surgeries so far. About four out of 10 hysterectomies are done robotically, Lecea said.

But don’t let thought of a machine doing the operation be a cause for concern. The surgeon is still in full control of what happens on the operating table. The robot cannot work on its own.

“I know a lot of people think, ‘I’m going to have robotic surgery and it’s going to be done by a robot.’ Well, not exactly,” said Lecea, who was the first physician at Hurley to use the da Vinci. “It allows us to do the same things we are doing with our hands, with tiny instruments.”

To operate the da Vinci system, which consists of three arms that hold different instruments and a camera to magnify the image by 10 times its actual size, surgeons sit at a console and put their thumbs and index finger into rings to control the movement of the robotic arms. They look into an eyepiece to see the 3D image on a screen.

Hurley has two consoles, so two surgeons can work together on an operation if necessary. Foot pedals on the consoles allow surgeons to seal blood vessels, make cuts and control which robotic arms are used at one time.

Surgeons and medical residents at Hurley are first trained on a simulation program on one of the consoles for 35 different modules, which equals about six hours before moving onto a pig lab, where physicians practice using the da Vinci by performing surgery on a live pig that has been put under anesthesia.

Lecea, however, said he trained on the simulator for a total of 24 hours before doing a pig lab and a total of 32 hours before doing his first human surgery with the da Vinci.

“The point is once you’ve done your time, you’ve made this your body, that it’s all natural,” Lecea said. “I absolutely fell in love with it. … You’re seeing three dimensions. You’re not struggling (to see). They became my hands inside there.”

McLaren-Flint purchased an original da Vinci system in 2005 and then purchased a da Vinci Si in 2009. Dr. Harold Rutila, urologist and robotic surgery committee chairman at McLaren, said that if hospitals aren’t using a system like the da Vinci, staff will see the numbers of surgeries decrease.

A second da Vinci Si will be purchased this fall to replace to the original machine bought bough seven years ago at McLaren. Since 2005, the hospital is seeing about 500 cases a year where the da Vinci system is used for surgeries.

McLaren-Flint staff started off with prostate cancer surgeries and then expanded to gynecological surgeries. But once physicians become skilled on a few procedures they can expand to general surgeries and other types of surgery, Rutila said.

“I’m pretty much doing over 95 percent of the prostate cancer surgeries for Genesee County. That’s basically because we have the robot,” Rutila said. “All residents coming out of training now, they are all learning the robot. So when those get out of school they are going to want to go somewhere where they have the robot.

“Most hospitals are going to have to have a robot. If they don’t, they are going to see their caseloads go down. That’s the trend. … That’s just the way things are going to be, I think. That’s what patients are demanding.”

Not only do patients benefit from the use of the da Vinci, but so do the surgeons, Rutila said. They will see their surgery volumes increase, which will improve their skills, and it is ergonomically better for the surgeons.

“It’s easier on your body, basically, especially if you are doing more than one in a day,” Rutila said.

But with recovery time from the minimally invasive surgery about six to eight weeks shorter than with an open surgery, patients are able to get back to their normal lives sooner and that’s the biggest benefit, Lecea said.

“When somebody’s allowed to return to work six to weeks after (open) surgery, they are still uncomfortable. With these patients, three to four weeks, they are pretty much forgetting they had surgery,” he said. “We can dissect tissues with a higher degree of precision than you had before. If that patient can return back to normal activities, getting back into society that much sooner, it’s a great impact.”

For more information on the da Vinci system visit Intuitive Surgical's website at www.intuitivesurgical.com.

Below is a video of Dr. Lecea demonstrating how the da Vinci system operates.