Meet the Second Single Port Surgery Patient at LVHN

Fred Schlerf awoke from a surgical procedure to remove an obstructed kidney in August 2019 feeling nothing more than
a little shoulder soreness. When he discovered the entire procedure was performed through one small incision, he figured there was only one explanation.

“They must have stood on my chest to yank out my kidney through that small hole,” jokes Schlerf. “I felt ready to go home.”

Schlerf went home the next day, with the distinction of being the second patient at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Cedar Crest to undergo a procedure using the new da Vinci SP® (single port) robotic surgery system. Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is the only health network in the region using the latest da Vinci robotic system, and one of very few in the world to have implemented the single-port system.

Game-changing surgical approach

All robotic surgery offers fewer incisions, less postoperative pain, and shorter hospital stays and recovery time. But the single-port system presents a new frontier.

“This is a game-changer,” says urologist Angelo Baccala, MD, with LVPG Urology and chief, division of urology at LVHN. “The single-port system gives the surgeon much more flexibility to work in narrow areas within the body. While multiple-port systems allow movements left and right, up and down, the single port can move 360 degrees. We’re only scratching the surface with what this system can do.”

Trusted care

Schlerf had complete confidence in Baccala, given he had removed his cancerous bladder, prostate and lymph nodes in 2017 through traditional robotic surgery. In January 2019, the 81-year-old retiree had a tube inserted to assist function in an obstructed left kidney through interventional radiology. Eventually, the decision was made to remove the kidney through single-port robotic surgery.

“I thought they were trying to get me into every operating room they have there,” Schlerf says. “But I feel as good as I have in some time.”

Schlerf and his wife, Betty, have two children, both of whom recently moved to North Carolina. They’re considering making the move themselves.

“But we’re unsure about leaving Dr. Baccala and everyone at LVHN,” Betty Schlerf says. “And Fred thinks they will miss him.”