For Kristen Stribling, having robotic surgery at Somerset Medical Center meant preserving her ovaries — and her ability to have children.
Robotic surgery is performed with the da Vinci Surgical System, an advanced tool available at Somerset Medical Center’s Institute for Robotic Surgery. Doctors watch a 3-D view inside the body as they guide precise instruments, which are inserted via tiny incisions. The method can be used to treat a range of health problems, from urologic conditions to sleep apnea.
At Somerset Medical Center, gynecologists Marlan Schwartz, MD, George Tweddel, MD, Chike Aguh, MD, and Gerard Pregenzer, MD, use robotic surgery in place of traditional abdominal incisions for hysterectomies, fibroid removals, endometriosis surgery and more. For women, it means:
- Smaller incisions
- Less blood loss and scarring
- Reduced risk for infection and other side effects
- A shorter recovery
“The incisions were nothing,” says Stribling, who left the hospital the day after her robotic procedure and turned 36 a week later. “I recovered so fast, it was incredible.”
Robotic Surgery ‘a Godsend’
Stribling saw Dr. Schwartz, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Somerset Medical Center, because of painful endometriosis, which causes the tissue that lines the uterus to grow elsewhere. She also had three ovarian cysts. Surgery was necessary.
“Traditional surgery would have meant losing both ovaries,” she says. It also would have required eight weeks off work and a big scar. Most significant, without her ovaries, she would have had to take hormones for decades and would have lost the option of having children.
Robotic surgery, she says, “is a godsend.” She had only two small incisions on either side of her belly button. Her pain was minimal and her recovery was quick. Even better, the constant pain she had grown accustomed to is gone.
Better Results with New Technology
Dr. Schwartz advises all women to investigate robotic surgery if their doctor says they need a procedure. The da Vinci provides a better view inside the body, and the robot’s articulated tools enhance dexterity.
“We can do things that we couldn’t do before, and we can do them more safely,” he says. That means, for example, that he could carefully cut around Stribling’s largest ovarian cyst instead of removing her ovary altogether.
Stribling trusted the new technology because she knew from a past job in the pharmaceutical industry how extensively surgical procedures are tested. “I had absolutely no worries,” she says.