That's from the fun of playing with joysticks and my back's way of
thanking me for doing surgery while seated on a stool.
I've been fascinated with robotic hernias ever since I saw the video
a few years ago of Arizona surgeon Conrad Ballecer, MD, using a
robot to do a very complicated hernia repair. There he was, deftly
transforming a no-doubt-about-it open procedure into a minimally
invasive one, sparing his patient a major surgery, a few nights in the
hospital, and a long and painful recovery. As a surgeon who special-
izes in complex hernias, I wanted to be able to offer this to my
patients, many of whom had prior hernia repairs and now suffer com-
plications with chronic pain.
For me, the robot really comes in handy (pun intended) for complex
cases like transversus abdominis release for large or recurrent ventral
incisional hernias. I can minimally invasively handle complicated pro-
cedures that I previously performed open. That's because the robot's
arms let you operate in the abdomen similarly to how you would oper-
ate during an open procedure.
Easy to master
But here's the thing: The laparoscopic approach is sufficient for
most hernias. Yes, for bread-and-butter hernia cases like inguinal
hernia or abdominal wall hernias, you don't need an assist from the
robot.
In fact, a study of mine has been unable to show that the robot
offers a benefit over laparoscopic options in most cases. We are cur-
rently looking at outcomes from the robot when removing mesh from
the groin: Are there fewer injuries and less post-op pain? The study
results are pending. We'll release the hard data soon. Regardless, I
enjoy using the robot. It's fun, almost like playing a video game.
But in an interesting twist, robotics let many surgeons offer mini-
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