What led you to use the da Vinci robotic system for colorectal cancer surgery?
What we do to treat rectal cancer is to use laparoscopic surgery, to use smaller incisions to do the same operation we would normally do through a big operation. Rectal cancer is in a very confined space. There are a lot of other structures in there that are important to spare. The robotic technique allows for better visualization and a more precise operation. Q: Is this new? A: Over the last 15 years, there’s been a trend to do more surgery primarily with laparoscopic techniques, using smaller incisions. And over the last five to seven years, there has been a trend to do rectal cancer this way. The robot is a tool to allow us to do this laparoscopically. The robot still does the same technique as in laparoscopy. It just has a much more precise ability to do it. The arms can turn the instruments in a way that we can’t as humans. Someone is sitting at the robot console, manipulating these arms. It’s still human-controlled, but the instruments are robotic. Q: Are there advantages of lapa
