Hospital News

2007 Press Releases

Students Try Their Hands on Robotic Surgery System

LONG BRANCH, NJ, February 1, 2007 - After operating the $1.5 million-plus robotic surgery system at Monmouth Medical Center, the consensus of students from two science-based academies was it was way cool.

Monmouth Medical Center recently hosted students from the Marine Academy of Science and Technology at Sandy Hook and the Academy of Allied Health and Science in Neptune for a lunchtime seminar on robotic surgery and a hands-on opportunity to operate the da Vinci Surgical System manufactured by Intuitive Surgical in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"I think it is really neat," said Matt Michel, 17, a senior at Allied who lives in Wall and hopes to get into bio-technical engineering after college graduation. "It is cool. I get to have experience with it . . . and see what's coming out in the field.

"I didn't realize how sensitive it really is," he said. "I didn't expect it to have the dexterity of your hands."

Darshan Shastri, 17, of Howell, another senior at Allied who wants to go into bio-tech engineering, said, "It's really cool. It is very easy to get the hang of it."

Opinions didn't change with Robert Yaffe, 17, a senior at Allied from Deal.

"You hear about this kind of technology all the time, but to be able to use it is pretty cool," Yaffe said.

Jennifer Lyons, 17, a senior at Allied from Wall who hopes to go to medical school, enjoyed her time at the computer console.

"I thought it was really cool," she said. "After the first few seconds, it got easier to use."

The Long Branch medical center, the only one in the region to offer robotic-assisted surgery, brought the equipment online in June.

Students heard from Lourens J. Willekes II, medical director of the hospital's Lung Cancer program, and Robert A. Graebe, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical center.

Because the surgeon must use joysticks to operate the system's four arms, it offers something to which young people can relate.

"I play a lot of X-box, that really has helped," said Willekes who was trained in the system at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark. "It comes a little bit easier when you have that background. The robot doesn't do the surgery. We still have to do the surgery."

And doing the surgery is exactly what is happening — from gynecologic to urologic to chest surgeries, the robotic-assisted system is on the forefront. Within a year, the hospital will be performing between 500 and 1,000 cases annually with the system, which will mean it will need a second da Vinci, predicted Graebe.

The da Vinci System cannot be programmed or take any action on its own to move the instruments, the physicians said. But it can eliminate a wrist tremor by the physician.

"It filters it out," Graebe said. "You look like you're the steadiest race car driver. You don't have any nervous movements."

The surgeon sits at a console where he or she manipulates joysticks. Each time a joystick is moved, a computer signal is sent to one of four arms that are positioned inside the patient. Those arms contain instruments that can cut, grab, dissect or suture. The instruments can be endoscopes, scalpels, forceps, scissors or dissectors. The surgeon sees the surgical field in 3-D. "You prefer to work always in 3-D," Graebe said. "Once you see it in 3-D, you're spoiled. If 3-D is available, I wouldn't operate in 2-D."

Grant Cornero, 17, a MAST junior from Wall, was also impressed by the precision of the machine.

"I was amazed at the extreme steadiness," he said. "If you hold the tools yourself, your hands would shake. But they will not move" with the aid of the machine.

He sees himself as a potential customer.

"It is minimally evasive," he said. "Before, they would have to cut you from chest to pelvis. Now, they only have to make four small holes."

These students — if they pursue medicine — will one day work on machines that are a great deal more sophisticated, physicians said. Already medical residents are being trained in robotic surgery, as well as conventional methods.

The surgeons say robotic-assisted surgery is the wave of the future, considering the growth of minimally-invasive procedures, which allow quicker healing, less scarring and reduced costs to hospitals.

"That technology has finally arrived and everyone wants the Playstation 3," Graebe said of the need to remain constantly updated.

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