MVHS deploys da Vinci Si surgical system

UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) has started using the da Vinci Si surgical system.

MVHS surgeons are currently using the system for urological surgery, but they plan to expand to include surgeries in the areas of gynecologic, thoracic, cardiac, and general surgery in the future, the health system said in a news release.

The da Vinci system arrived at MVHS in late December and surgeons and staff members have been training on it since that time, the organization said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry.

MVHS “has invested approximately one million dollars in the development of this robotic program for our community,” MVHS added in the email response.

MVHS is an affiliation of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC), both of Utica. The two organizations teamed up in March 2014.

Drs. Jeffrey Sekula and Daniel Welchons of AMP Urology in New Hartford perform procedures involving the da Vinci system at the St. Elizabeth Campus of MVHS, the organization said.

The da Vinci Si System’s 3D-HD vision system gives surgeons a “highly magnified view, virtually extending their eyes and hands into the patient.” The system allows surgeons to make smaller, “more precise” movements of tiny instruments within the patient’s body, MVHS said.

“We are thrilled to offer this technology here in the Mohawk Valley,” Charles Williams, director of operations of PeriOperative Services at MVHS, said in the release. “The da Vinci System gives our patients the potential for shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, less need for narcotic pain medicine, smaller incisions and faster recovery times.”

The da Vinci surgical system is made by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Sunnyvale, California. The company first introduced it in 1999 and the system has been deployed at thousands of health-care providers around the world.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com