By Aman Chabra, Local News 8 Reporter
IDAHO FALLS – A state of the art surgical robot system made its Idaho debut at one local hospital.
Thursday, Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls showed off the capabilities of its new Da Vinci Robotic Surgical system.
The machine allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures using robotic hands designed to mimic the movements of human hands.
The machine is the first of its kind in Idaho. Similar machines can be found in hospitals in the Salt Lake City area, Denver, Seattle, and other bigger cities around the region.
"We are able to do these procedures now more precisely, with less blood loss and quicker recovery times," said Dr. Ty Erickson, "so instead of keeping the patient in the hospital for three to five days, we're able to get the patient out in literally 24 hours."
The machine has robotic arms with small metal finger-like appendages which hover above the operating table. Meanwhile, the operating physician sits at the controls inside a nearby portal, and is able to see a magnified version of the procedure at the same time.
"Instead of making large incisions, this device does smaller cuts, so we can avoid the risk of infections and other complications at the same time," said Dr. Erickson.
Dr. Erickson will perform the first procedure with the new device. He will be doing a hysterectomy on a patient on February 1st.
