Da Vinci Xi Surgical System

The Fauquier Health da Vinci Xi robotic platform is changing the surgical experience for both surgeons and their patients.  Conditions currently treated with the platform include:

• Abdominal wall or ventral hernia
• Inguinal hernia
• Gynecological conditions
• Paraesophageal or hiatal hernia repair

The da Vinci Xi surgical robot enables enhanced 3D-HD visualization, precise intuitive motion and a surgeon-friendly improved ergonomic design. The da Vinci Surgical System requires the surgeon to be in 100% control throughout the surgical procedure. In other words, the surgeon is performing the procedure but is utilizing the da Vinci robot as a tool, enabling him/her to achieve trimmer-filtering, extremely precise movements of the tiny instruments that are placed within the patient. The Xi System’s immersive 3D-HD vision system provides surgeons a highly magnified view, virtually extending their eyes and hands into the patient.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• What is Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS)?

  MIS is surgery typically performed through small incisions, or operating ports, rather than large incisions, resulting in potentially shorter recovery times, fewer complications, reduced hospitalization costs and reduced trauma to the patient. While MIS has become standard-of-care for particular surgical procedures, it has not been widely adopted for more complex or delicate procedures – for example, prostatectomy and mitral valve repair.
  
  Intuitive Surgical believes that surgeons have been slow to adopt MIS for complex procedures because they generally find that fine-tissue manipulation – such as dissecting and suturing – is more difficult than in open surgery. Intuitive Surgical's technology, however, enables the use of MIS techniques for complex procedures.

• Why do we need a new way to do minimally invasive surgery?

  Despite the widespread use of minimally invasive or laparoscopic surgery in today's hospitals, adoption of laparoscopic techniques, for the most part, has been limited to a few routine procedures. This is due mostly to the limited capabilities of traditional laparoscopic technology, including standard video and rigid instruments, which surgeons must rely on to operate through small incisions.
  
  In traditional open surgery, the physician makes a long incision and then widens it to access the anatomy. In traditional minimally invasive surgery – which is widely used for routine procedures -- the surgeon operates using rigid, hand-operated instruments, which are passed through small incisions and views the anatomy on a standard video monitor. Neither this laparoscopic instrumentation nor the video monitor can provide the surgeon with the excellent visualization needed to perform complex surgery like valve repair or nerve-sparing prostatectomy.

• What are the benefits of da Vinci ® Surgery compared with traditional methods of surgery?

  Some of the major benefits experienced by surgeons using the da Vinci ® Surgical System over traditional approaches have been greater surgical precision, increased range of motion, improved dexterity, enhanced visualization and improved access. Benefits experienced by patients may include a shorter hospital stay, less pain, less risk of infection, less blood loss, fewer transfusions, less scarring, faster recovery and a quicker return to normal daily activities. None of these benefits can be guaranteed, as surgery is necessarily both patient- and procedure-specific.

• Where is the da Vinci ® Surgical System being used now?

  Currently, The da Vinci ® Surgical System is being used in hundreds of locations worldwide, in major centers in the United States, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia and Turkey.

• Has the da Vinci ® Surgical System been cleared by the FDA?

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the da Vinci ® Surgical System for a wide range of procedures. Please see the FDA Clearance page for specific clearances and representative uses.

• Is da Vinci ® Surgery covered by insurance?

  da Vinci Surgery is categorized as robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, so any insurance that covers minimally invasive surgery generally covers da Vinci ® Surgery. This is true for widely held insurance plans like Medicare. It is important to note that your coverage will depend on your plan and benefits package. For specifics regarding reimbursement for da Vinci ® Surgery, or if you have been denied coverage, please call the Reimbursement Hotline at 1-888-868-4647 ext. 3128. From outside the United States, please call 33-1-39-04-26-90.

• Will the da Vinci ® Surgical System make the surgeon unnecessary?

  On the contrary, the da Vinci ® System enables surgeons to be more precise, advancing their technique and enhancing their capability in performing complex minimally invasive surgery. The System replicates the surgeon's movements in real time. It cannot be programmed, nor can it make decisions on its own to move in any way or perform any type of surgical maneuver without the surgeon's input.

• Is a surgeon using the da Vinci ® Surgical System operating in "virtual reality"?

  Although seated at a console a few feet away from the patient, the surgeon views an actual image of the surgical field while operating in real-time, through tiny incisions, using miniaturized, wristed instruments. At no time does the surgeon see a virtual image or program/command the system to perform any maneuver on its own/outside of the surgeon's direct, real-time control.

• While using the da Vinci ® Surgical System, can the surgeon feel anything inside the patient?

  The system relays some force feedback sensations from the operative field back to the surgeon throughout the procedure. This force feedback provides a substitute for tactile sensation and is augmented by the enhanced vision provided by the high-resolution 3D view.

• What procedures have been performed using the da Vinci ® Surgical System? What additional procedures are possible?

  The da Vinci ® System is a robotic surgical platform designed to enable complex procedures of all types to be performed through 1-2 cm incisions or operating "ports." To date, tens of thousands of procedures including general, urologic, gynecologic, thoracoscopic, and thoracoscopically-assisted cardiotomy procedures have been performed using the da Vinci ® Surgical System.

Questions? Send us a contact request.