New robots arrive at Tucson Medical Center to help surgeons

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Inside the Tucson Medical Center’s OR, the surgeons are using brand new technology that helps them perform surgery. The hospital received three new surgical Da Vinci robots this month.

The surgeons sit at the surgical console, look through the lens and pinch master controllers that move the surgical instruments. The arms can move, clamp and lift, with one arm as the camera. For colorectal surgeon Stefanie Schluender, she said the robots help the doctors become more precise and help the patients. The robots are used in many surgeries including bariatrics, gynocology and colorectal surgery.

“This saves us a lot of time and effort and getting in there and being more accurate,” she said. “It also reduces their time in the hospital and their recovery.”

The hospital has five robots but received the three new ones in January.

“It just different in terms of exposure and trauma to the patient to not create these huge incisions,” she said. “Our typical length of stay is half of what it used to be because our patients do so much better.”