NOCH's new robotic surgery unit cuts pain and recovery time

A crowd gathered in a North Ottawa Community Hospital operating room Thursday afternoon to watch as Dr. Samir Hamati demonstrated the hospital's new robotic surgery tool. Hamati demonstrated how the device, known as the da Vinci, was used, moving pinchers on the three-armed robot with controls he manipulated with his thumbs and middle fingers. The doctor sat at an enormous console, looking at a magnified view of what he was doing in front of him. The operating room audience also got to watch through a separate monitor.

Jordan Travis

Grand Haven

May 6, 2011

After showing a dexterity exercise where he used the $1.2 million tool to move rubber rings onto anenome-like rubber fingers, Hamati tied a stitch on a practice suture pad. By using this machine, he said, surgeons have the ability to perform certain surgeries through four small incisions.

While minimally invasive surgery isn’t new, older techniques using laparosopic tools controlled directly by surgeons were much more awkward, said Jen VanSkiver, chief communications officer for North Ottawa Community Health System.

By using the da Vinci, surgery patients will experience less pain, blood loss and complications, Hamati said. Patients will also have a shorter recovery time, he added.

To read more of this story, see today's print edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.