By Kristen Poland

CHARLESTON -- When Charleston resident Mark Wilson weighed his options for where to receive surgery for his prostate cancer, he knew traveling six hours would make an already stressful situation all the more daunting.

With his 7-year-old daughter in mind, Wilson needed to be sure he was taking advantage of the best treatment option available to him. At the time, that meant traveling to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta to have his prostatectomy with the assistance of the da Vinci Surgical System.

The da Vinci is a surgical robot that allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgeries with greater precision and accuracy. Benefits to patients include less pain, less bleeding, shorter hospital stays and drastically reduced recovery time than what is usually associated with traditional open surgeries. 

Charleston-area residents can now reap the benefits of the da Vinci System at Roper St. Francis Healthcare’s downtown campus. Doctors will begin performing surgeries with the system in mid-July including prostate and gynecological surgeries.

Wilson, a perfusionist in the heart vascular center at Roper St. Francis, first learned he had prostate cancer in November 2006. His Charleston-based urologist recommended that he consider having a da Vinci prostatectomy. The benefits would outweigh the disadvantage of having to travel, he said.

“My main goal in all of this was to make sure we got the cancer out,” Wilson said. “We don’t have long-term data on surgeries with the da Vinci, but early studies show that cancer removal is at least as good if not, maybe, better than with a traditional open prostatectomy.”

In addition, Wilson’s urologist showed him studies that said the risk of negative side effects, such as impotence and incontinence, might be reduced with the robotic-assisted surgery, he said.

The shorter recovery time was appealing, as well. Within a few hours of his surgery, Wilson was up and walking around. He was released the morning following the surgery and had little difficulty walking the halls and stairs of his hotel. In addition, he said the pain from his incisions was minimal.

When performing surgery using the da Vinci, a surgeon sits at a separate consol that includes a high definition 3-D vision system and hand and foot controls that allow the surgeon to maneuver the four interactive robotic arms.

The arms can be fitted with EndoWrist instruments that perform surgical procedures including clamping, suturing and tissue manipulation. The EndoWrist instruments perform with an even greater flexibility and precision than the human hand and wrist, offering seven degrees of motion. 

Dr. Scott Jennings, a gynecological oncologist at Roper St. Francis, recently returned from California where he underwent training for the da Vinci. He has been performing minimally invasive hysterectomies using a laporoscope, a tool that allows doctors to perform surgeries using small, less invasive incisions, for many years but said the da Vinci will enable surgeons to offer minimally invasive surgery to a greater number of women because of its advanced flexibility and precision. 

 “We’re happy to be able to offer this option to a lot of women who will be able to look forward to getting back to their normal lives in one week, as opposed to six or eight,” Jennings said, adding that a reduced recovery time is doubly beneficial to cancer patients because the sooner they recover from surgery, the quicker they can begin their cancer treatments like radiation or chemotherapy.  

Unlike gynecological surgeries, which have been performed laporoscopically for several years, prostatectomies have been limited to traditional open surgery, with just 1% being performed laporoscopically. The da Vinci has opened the door for a minimally invasive prostatectomy, however, and currently about 45% of prostatectomies are performed robotically.

“The da Vinci allows urologists who don’t normally perform minimally invasive prostatectomies a way to do it safely and effectively,” said Dr. Dennis Kubinski, a urologist at Roper St. Francis. “Patients in this area have been leaving the state to have this done, so we are glad to be the first center in Charleston to offer this type of surgery.”

For Wilson, the da Vinci made a world of difference, from peace of mind to greater comfort in recovery.

“I researched this surgery quite a bit before I committed to it and all the patients I talked to said, ‘this is the way to go,’” Wilson said. “With a 7-year-old daughter at home, I knew I had to go with the best option no matter how far I had to travel, and I have no regrets.”