Historically, the da Vinci robot was developed by order of the US Army to operate on soldiers from a distance. It was introduced into the world of surgery in the 2000s, first in the United States and then in many countries with a significant increase in the number of robots installed over the last 10 years.
The surgeon, ergonomically installed next to the operating table, is at the controls of the device, assisted by his fellow surgeon and the instrumentalist next to the patient.
Three or four arms of the robot (depending on the difficulty of the operation) are installed above the patient (small incisions) controlled by the surgeon who manipulates them from his console using joysticks. The precision of this surgery comes from the fact that the camera is in 3D with the possibility of zooming at the convenience of the operator, but also from the articulated clamps with 6 possible axes of rotation.
Robotic surgery was introduced at Hirslanden Clinique des Grangettes in 2008. Since 2015 we have the latest generation of robot, the Da Vinci Xi, at our disposal. Certain gynaecological procedures can be performed robotically, such as removal of the uterus (hysterectomy), removal of one or more fibroids (myomectomy) and endometriosis.
Currently 3 referral surgeons in our gynaecological surgery centre use robotic surgery.
