KTLA 5: New Surgical Robot Gives Doctors ‘Superhuman’ Precision
KTLA 5 recently interviewed Victor Chien, MD, a plastic surgeon in the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai, and Curtis L. Cetrulo Jr., MD, the department’s vice chair of Research, about performing the first FDA-approved robot-assisted reconstructive microsurgery in the U.S. for head and neck cancer.
Microsurgery is a highly specialized technique used to connect tiny blood vessels. With the remote-controlled Symani Surgical System, surgeons sit in a unique chair and use hand controllers, which reduce natural hand tremors, to perform the delicate technique while a 3D screen magnifies the operating area.
Chien, who performed the surgery, told KTLA 5 “Rich on Tech” reporter Rich DeMuro the system allows for remarkable precision when connecting vessels thinner than a human hair.
“This robot and the three-dimensional aspect of the visualization allows us to add efficiency and precision to these very difficult cases,” Chien said.
Cetrulo, director of the Division of Plastic Surgery and the General William and Willa Dean Lyon Family Chair in Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery in honor of Randolph Sherman, MD, added, “What we’re watching on the screen, it could look normal to us, but in reality, it’s absolutely tiny.”
Cetrulo told DeMuro the surgery performed at Cedars-Sinai was a “100 percent success” and it could “open up a whole-new avenue of treatments for patients for diseases we never even considered treating.”
The surgeons noted robot-assisted microsurgery could one day be used for brain, abdomen and chest surgeries.
“These tools allow us to use our mastery in a level of precision and a level of dedication that was not previously possible,” Chien told DeMuro.
Click here to watch the complete segment on KTLA 5.