SRMC upgrades to the da Vinci XI Robotic Surgical System

$Jeff Mager, a clinical sales representative with Intuitive Surgical, gives Derrick Nail instruction on how to manipulate the instruments of the da Vinci XI Surgical System as his daughter Gabbie Nail and friend Shawana Andrews watch. [Ramon Rios\SRPG]$

MILTON — Imagine being able to get in the control seat of a $2.4 million dollar robotic surgical system and play with it for a while, with no medical training.

That is what attendees of the Santa Rosa Medical Center (SRMC) Wreath Lighting event were allowed to do as the center added a hands-on demonstration of the their newest da Vinci XI system after the Christmas wreath lighting ceremony Nov. 29.

"We are very happy to have the new da Vinci XI system," said SRMC CEO Doug Sills. "The new system will allow us to double the amount of robotic surgeries we can provide to our patients."

Robotic surgery is not new to the medical center. They already use the da Vinci SI model to provide minimally invasive surgeries to their patients. The SI model is an older version but still capable of providing the robotic surgery option. Most of the surgery performed with the SI model at SRMC is for gynecological procedures Sills said.

"We average about 20 robotic surgeries a week," Sills said. The addition of the da Vinci XI system in conjunction with the model SRMC already uses will not only allow for more surgeries, it has more general surgery use applications than previous models.

According to Benjamin Hebert, da Vinci coordinator for SRMC, the XI system has high definition, 3D monitors at the surgeons’ console. This was the most visible difference between the two systems to the untrained eye. The visual monitor that shows the surgical team what the surgeon is looking at was sharp and clear, while the older version had an animated appearance.

Hebert said that while both systems have four arms that penetrate the body during surgery, the XI model has the ability to move the camera to any arm while the SI system has a fixed camera on one arm that cannot be changed. The XI system also allows the surgeon to move the arms into different quadrants of the body without having to undock the arms and reposition the machine as with the SI system. The XI offers more flexibility during surgery and has more options for general surgeries like hernia and bariatric surgery.

"Corporate CHS realizes the need we have for the system so they decided to make a group buy," said Len Palmer operating room resource coordinator. Palmer was referring to Community Health Systems the parent company to SRMC; they made a bulk purchase of 25 machines for their hospitals nationwide.

With almost the entire surgical team trained in the new system, according to Sills, SRMC will start using the da Vinci XI as soon as next week.