DA VINCE SURGICAL SYSTEM: A MEDICAL MIRACLE

More than three million people that have incurred a medical issue, which required complex surgery, are living a happy and healthy life. The cause being one of the greatest and most innovative machines of the 21st century; the Da Vinci surgical system. The Da Vinci surgical system is a surgical instrument designed on the foundations of the famous scientist Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific findings on human anatomy and its purpose is to aid surgeons in minimally invasive open surgery. The device is approved by United States Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and was built by the Intuitive Surgical Inc., California. The purpose of the medical system is to provide accuracy and precision for surgeons with regards to opening with about 1-2 cm incisions. This device is used in the surgeries of Urology, Cardiology, General surgery, Gynecology and Thoracic surgery. The selling price of this machine is 2 million dollars, and the annual maintenance cost is 180,000 dollars.

 The Da Vinci surgical system components are:

1.      The surgeon console 

2.      The patient side cart

3.      The electronic cart

4.      Endo wrist instrument

5.      The vison system

The surgeon console system is the central system that allows doctor to view the surgical field and control microscopic instruments that are used on the operation theater table to view magnified circulation and other abnormalities in the body of the patient.

The patient side cart consists of 3-4 (depending on the model) mechanical arms that support the endoscopic instruments and camera arm during the surgical procedure.

The electronic cart contains software and hardware parts such as the Electrical Surgical Units (ESUs), suction pumps, insufflator and a light source attached to the endoscope.

Endo wrist instruments are technical motion sensors that have far greater degree of dexterity than the human hand. These instruments contain the functions of:

Ø Cutting,

Ø Clamping,

Ø Coagulating,

Ø Suturing,

Ø Dissecting

Ø And manipulating tissue.

The vision system is equipped with high technology 3D image processing equipment that provides the whole view of the patient’s inner body which can be seen through the viewing monitor.

There are numerous benefits that come from the application of the Da Vinci system. These include: 

1.      Less Blood Loss: A high decrease in blood volume can lead to organ failure and hypovolemic shock and massive hemorrhage.

2.      Lower Bacterial Infection Rates: Diseases like Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), pneumonia and other gram-negative bacterial infections that can compromise the internal immunity of the patient are lessened.

3.      Reduced Surgical Complications: Complications like Pulmonary Embolism, reaction of anesthesia, Edema, Cardiac shock, and Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) rate falls.

4.      Shorter Hospital Tenure: Time in hospital is shorten as patient’s operation done through form Da Vinci system can heal tissue faster and thus leads to less chances of getting infection from hospitals. Furthermore, as there is constant rise in the number of patients it eases the process of health administration to focus on more critical patients.

5.      Acute Scarring after Post-Surgery:  In surgery the most struggling phase for patient healing is the post-surgery in which the patient’s mobility is highly constricted due to pain and stitching. The stitching done by the surgeon can lead to scars depending on the skill but with Da Vinci the incision and suture is done in such a manner that the scar visibility is minimum and skin tissue heals faster.

Although these are some of the benefits and more than 770,000 operations mostly involving cardiac valve repair, prostate surgery in men and hysterectomy in women. There are still some criticisms when it comes to the opting of Da Vinci machine.  As they are more than 1700 Da Vinci systems installed in the world, there have been reports of malfunction and cases of patient death during surgery through the machine. Additionally, some machines took extensive time to operate that the patient was under anesthesia for more than the standard period that is extremely severe.

In conclusion, doctors need a lot of experience and further research is needed to further examine the limitations and scope of this medical technology, Da Vinci medical machine is proof that patient care experience is revolutionized and that many individuals prefer to have themselves operated by machine rather than humans due to its accuracy and human related errors.