Facing Hysterectomy? Talk With Your Physician About the Benefits of Robotic Surgery

Hysterectomy is a common procedure in the U.S. Approximately 600,000 of these surgeries to remove the uterus are performed annually. Since 2005, more and more of them have been performed with the assistance of robots. That was the year that the Food and Drug Administration approved robotic-assisted hysterectomies.

Of course robotic-assisted hysterectomies still require a surgeon. The robotic tools simply allow that surgeon to work with more precision than is possible via conventional surgery. There are many benefits for the patients, too, including less blood loss, less pain, minimal scarring, reduced risk of complications and a faster recovery. In fact, patients who undergo a robotic-assisted hysterectomy often can go home the same day. 

“Complete recovery is three to four weeks if the patient needs to go back to a strenuous job,” says obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) Paula Youngdahl, MD. “Less if her job is not that strenuous. For abdominal hysterectomy, by contrast, it’s six to eight weeks.”

Dr. Youngdahl is speaking from her 10 years of experience with robotic-assisted hysterectomies. She recently joined the OB-GYN team at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Pocono following a long career in the Pittsburgh area.

“Robotic-assisted surgery requires specialized training beyond traditional surgery,” she says. Essentially that amounts to learning to work with multiple physician-controlled robotic arms. One arm holds a camera, which feeds a high-definition, 3D image of the surgery site to a screen the surgeon views. The surgeon’s hands never enter the patient’s body and the only incision made is less than an inch in length.

Using a robotic system for surgery also provides a complete, close-up view of the structures inside the patient’s body, and the robotic arms have better range of motion than humans do.

As with all surgeries, there are pros and cons to consider, including whether robotic-assisted hysterectomy surgery is right for you.

Pros

• Smaller incision
• Less blood loss
• Appropriate for women of all sizes

Cons

• Procedure takes longer, requiring more time under anesthesia
• To facilitate the procedure, patient must be tilted, head down, at a 30-degree angle, which may cause some swelling in the face

Dr. Youngdahl has one more word of advice for potential patients:

“Remember that hysterectomies are still major surgery, not something to take lightly. But this approach is easier on the patient.”

Note that hysterectomies are not the only procedures performed with the help of robotics at LVH–Pocono. Robotic-assisted surgery is an option there for many other cases and conditions. You should also know that LVHN as a whole offers the largest, most advanced robotic surgery program in the region. Across the network, more than 80,000 procedures have been completed since the program began in 2008, and more than 250 surgeons use the technology regularly to address a wide variety of conditions with precision.