Northwest Hospital Performs 1,000th Robotic Surgery
Randallstown, MD - Northwest Hospital recently performed its 1,000th robotic surgery, a significant milestone for LifeBridge Health's Department of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery.
"It is so exciting to reach 1,000 robotic surgical cases. I am very proud that, at Northwest Hospital, we are establishing ourselves as a robotics center for excellence and as a leader in robotics surgery in Maryland," says Kelly Corbi, division senior vice president and chief integration officer at LifeBridge Health. "Our progress and growth, particularly over the last five years, has been possible thanks to the vision, passion and commitment of our surgeons and our amazing surgery team."
Adds Dr. Gary Hamamoto, who successfully performed the 1,000th surgery, an inguinal (groin) hernia repair, "It is a great accomplishment to do 1,000 robotics cases. We plan to keep growing. We plan to be a center of excellence for robotic hernia surgery. We want Northwest Hospital to be one of the great robotics hospitals in the state of Maryland."
Robotic surgery, a minimally invasive technique, is performed for thoracic, gynecological, urologic and vascular conditions, among others. Northwest Hospital performed its very first robotic surgery in 2010. The number of robotic surgeries at Northwest, home to the LifeBridge Health , has steadily increased in recent years; so far in 2018, Northwest has already performed nearly 300 such procedures. Advantages of robotic surgery include less pain and discomfort and a faster recovery for patients.
During robotic procedures, small surgical instruments, attached to robotic arms, are placed inside the patient's body through small incisions in the abdomen. The surgeon is seated at a console that translates hand movements, directing the robotic arms into precise movements of the instruments. The surgeon also has a 3D view from inside the patient's body via a camera.
More recently, Northwest Hospital has been performing robotic procedures via the da Vinci Si Surgical System. With the growing number of robotic surgeries, the hospital is adding the da Vinci Xi, the newest version of the robotic surgical system, which gives surgeons even more flexibility and technological advantages, among them the ability to operate in all four quadrants of the abdomen without having to readjust the robot. Northwest will continue to use both machines.
"This achievement, our 1,000th robotic procedure, puts Northwest Hospital on the map. I think of Northwest as a hidden gem. The experience of the patients who come here is wonderful. It's exciting that more and more people in the communities we serve are learning about the advanced procedures we do here that you can't find just anywhere," says Dr. Celine A. Richardson, a board-certified general surgeon at Northwest Hospital who specializes in laparoscopic and robotic general and bariatric procedures, and is director of LifeBridge Health's minimally invasive surgery fellowship program.
About Northwest Hospital
Located in Randallstown, Maryland, Northwest Hospital serves the health care needs of people in the northwest Baltimore metro area, western Baltimore City, and Carroll and Howard counties. Northwest Hospital is part of LifeBridge Health, one of the largest providers of health services in Maryland. In addition to Northwest Hospital, LifeBri