SLIDELL, LA – Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore is now offering state-of-the-art robotic surgery, or robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, at its campus on Medical Center Drive.
The latest in cutting edge technology, robotic surgery is designed to provide patients with minimally invasive surgical options. This technology now allows surgeons at Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore to perform complex procedures, including surgery for prostate cancer, hernias, kidney tumors, weight-loss/ bariatrics and obstructed kidneys, with improved outcomes, reps said.
For most patients, when compared to conventional surgery, robotic surgery can result in significantly less pain, less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, shorter recovery periods and a quicker return to normal daily activities.
“This cutting edge technology offers a whole new level of surgical capabilities,” said Dr. Michael Pinsky, Urology, Robotic Surgery, Ochsner Medical Center – North Shore. “This revolutionary approach to minimally invasive surgery allows surgeons more precision, better sparing of healthy normal tissue and the ability to shorten the patient’s recovery time and hospital stay.”
Instead of making traditional open surgical incisions, the surgeon operates through small laparoscopic incisions. Unlike pure laparoscopic surgeries, the surgeon is not holding the instruments in his or her hands at the patient’s bedside. Instead, the surgical robot attaches to the instruments and the system translates the surgeon’s hand movements from a control panel into smooth precise movements of these instruments. The system’s endoscope (or camera) gives the surgeon a magnified, high definition, 3D view inside a patient’s body.
“The surgeon is still performing the surgery,” says Dr. Pinsky, making the important distinction that the robot isn’t performing the surgery itself. “The surgical robot is just the latest tool in a surgeon’s arsenal to enhance and perfect surgical techniques of necessary procedures for our patients and provides greater range of motion, more flexibility and better control during the operation.”
Surgeons include:
Michael Pinsky, MD, Urology
Gary Wolf, MD, General Surgery
Josh Parks, MD, General Surgery
Richard Leblanc, MD, General Surgery
Ace Gridley, MD, Bariatric Surgery, General Surgery
Ochsner Health System is Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic, healthcare system with 30 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and more than 60 health centers. Ochsner is the only Louisiana hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Hospital” across three specialty categories caring for patients from all 50 states and more than 80 countries worldwide each year. Ochsner employs more than 17,000 employees and over 1,000 physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties, and conducts more than 600 clinical research studies.
For more information about Ochsner’s robotic surgery program
