SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A new surgical robot at Sharp Memorial Hospital is giving doctors a better "feel" for the patient as they operate.
Sharp is one of only 10 hospitals in the country with the Da Vinci 5 robot. It's made by Intuitive, and is the first surgical robot that offers doctors tactile feedback as they operate.
"These instruments, as I push on different parts of the tissue, they'll tell me how hard I'm pushing and pulling," says Dr. Marquis Hart, one of the leading kidney and abdominal surgeons at Sharp.
"I can feel the tissue, the tension in the tissue. So it made the experience a lot more connected to the patient."
The robot has four arms that allow for different tools during surgery. It's connected to an ergonomically designed console with a 3D screen. The surgeon sits at the console and operates the robot from across the room.
"This system has really, dramatically changed surgery for me," says Dr. Hart.
He says this kind of control and feedback helps doctors make surgeries more precise, which can speed up recovery times. Now that he's used it to operate a handful of times, Dr. Hart says it's unlike anything he's used in the past.
"I've been a surgeon for 35 years," he says. "I've seen this whole pathway from very large open procedures to now using the Da Vinci 5 robot... I would never have thought (this) could be."
The robot can do surgery on anything from the abdomen to the chest. Watch the video above for a demonstration of how it works.
