Health Care

Trinity Mother Frances Hospital Surgeons Use Cutting-Edge Robotic Technology

Robots are changing the face of coronary care, but the watchful eye of a human “assistant” is vital. The CASAT has technology found nowhere else in east Texas.

Open-heart surgery usually means a complex‚ invasive procedure with a lengthy recuperation. But at Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler‚ new robotic technology is making heart and other surgeries far easier on the patients.

“Our first robotic bypass was in February 2004‚ and the gentleman was so pleased with his outcome that he eventually came to work for us‚” says John Moore‚ director of media and technology for Trinity Mother Frances Health System.

“We had held a press conference soon after the procedure‚ and when a reporter asked how the patient was doing‚ we told him to just turn around‚” Moore says. “The gentleman had already gone home‚ and had driven back over to take part in the conference. He was sitting right behind the reporter.”

The hospital’s Center for Advanced Surgery and Technology has three da Vinci ® robotic surgery systems: 3D echocardiography‚ an Avanto MRI and two Stereotaxis magnetic-assisted catheterization labs. It has been designated a Center of Excellence by Intuitive Surgical‚ the maker of the da Vinci system. And it’s not just heart patients benefiting from the technology; physicians treat prostate‚ urology‚ lung‚ OB-GYN and other patients with the systems‚ Moore says.

“We were the first in east Texas to do heart bypass surgery‚ back in 1983‚” he says. “We also were the first with an open-heart cath lab‚ so the heart is one of our main focuses. But the robotics do much more than just heart surgery; overall they give our physicians the tools they need to diagnose and treat patients more thoroughly and faster.”

From the physicians’ perspective‚ the robotics systems offer one major benefit: faster recovery time.

“It puts a focus on offering the patient a less invasive‚ less traumatic way to do bypass surgery‚” says Dr. William F. Turner Jr.‚ a cardiac surgeon with Turner Cardiovascular Associates and medical director of the Center for Advanced Surgery and Technology.

Turner‚ who has performed more than 100 procedures with the robotics system‚ says it is impossible to underestimate the changes robotic procedures have made‚ and are making‚ in the coronary-care field.

“With traditional on-pump surgery‚ the patient’s heart is stopped during the surgery while a heart-lung machine artificially oxygenates and circulates the blood through the body‚” he says. “The da Vinci allows us to operate on the heart without having to split the breastbone‚ and also without having to use that machine.”

The procedure means less blood loss and less injury to the heart. For patients‚ the difference translates into far shorter recovery periods – days‚ rather than weeks. There’s also an overall decrease in potential post-surgery issues.

Turner is not alone in his enthusiasm for the technology. The da Vinci system also is used extensively by Dr. James Caccitolo‚ a cardiothoracic surgeon with the Trinity Mother Frances Clinic.

As the field of robotics continues to grow with new technology‚ Turner says he sees the procedures becoming even less invasive – and soon.

“We want the next generation of cardiac patients to have even more refined techniques‚” he says. “Next we want to do completely endoscopic coronary-bypass procedures – not just off the pump and without splitting the breastbone‚ but also without incisions. We have the infrastructure set up already and have done the training‚ so now we’re just waiting for the appropriate patients. We’re ready to go.”

Story by Joe Morris

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