Call it a state-of-the-art milestone: members of Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton's Surgical Services department recently celebrated completing its 700th robotic-assisted surgical procedure at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton.
The procedure, performed by Christopher Powell, MD, a urologic specialist with West Georgia Urology, was a radical robotic prostatectomy, or prostate removal — a common treatment for prostate cancer.
“This robotic instrument is a good example of how Tanner is moving forward with state-of-the-art technology,” said Dr. Powell, who serves as chair of the department’s robotics meetings.
“And with the da Vinci platforms here at Tanner, patients don’t have to travel to major metropolitan areas to receive the best care.”
Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton surgical suites are home to two da Vinci surgical systems by Intuitive Surgical: the da Vinci Si and the da Vinci Xi.
The da Vinci surgical systems are advanced tools for minimally invasive surgery that enable surgeons to perform complex operations through a few tiny incisions, giving surgeons improved vision, precision and control than traditional surgery.
Dr. Powell explained that this milestone is a testament to how much Tanner cares about its patients and the advanced level of care the health system is able to offer.
“[Having completed 700 surgeries] shows that Tanner did not just purchase this robot to look good on paper; it shows how we are actively using it to take care of our patients,” said Dr. Powell. “Whether it’s the 700th or 701st or more, it doesn’t matter — what matters is taking care of each of our individual patients with the very best standard of care.”
Tanner has offered robotic-assisted procedures since March 2013. The health system offers robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery for a wide variety of colorectal procedures, general surgery, gynecologic procedures, head and neck procedures, hernia repair, thoracic (chest) procedures and urological procedures.
More information about minimally invasive surgery at Tanner is available at www.SurgeryAtTanner.org.