Technology allows more precise surgery

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Doctors at Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute have a new, cutting-edge tool to use in the operating room. The da Vinci is taking the art of surgery to a whole new level.

Doctor Khurshid Guru from Roswell said, "If you want to take that coin, you can move that coin and then leave it here."

Welcome to the future of traditional surgery, where doctors' hands never touch the patient's body. The physician sits across the room and several robotic instruments do the work.

Dr. Guru said, "So you technically have one more assistant helping you doing the operation inside the body without putting the extra hand."

Dr. Guru has been using the da Vinci robotic surgical system since 2004.

It began with prostate surgery and now they've expanded to include bladder and hysterectomy surgery.

Dr. Guru said, "And now we have just adapted it for colorectal surgery too."

Dr. Guru is a master at the da Vinci controls. He gave a demonstration in our News 4 studios Tuesday night, and discussed the advantanges of micro surgery, using smaller instruments and a 10-times magnified camera with images in 3-D.

Dr. Guru said, "Number one is you have a smaller incision so you recover quicker. The pain is much less. You can ambulate quicker. You can get back to your normal day to day activity and recovery."

At Roswell, the da Vinici system allows surgeons and patients a positive outcome the first time.

Dr. Guru said, "You can see it better, and you can get to areas where the cancer could be not easily accessible with the hands."

Training on the da Vinci takes one to two years, but with a quick lesson from the doctor News 4's Lisa Flynn was doing virtual surgery.

Dr. Guru said, "You twist your wrist. See that's the beauty of the robot. You have that wristed moment which you do not have with traditional laparoscopy."

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Cutting-edge technology is allowing more precise surgeries using a sophisticated surgical system called the da Vinci.

Doctor Khurshid Guru from Roswell Park Cancer Institute visited News 4 to explain the da Vinci.