Most people are candidates for da Vinci Surgery, but it may not be right for everyone. Only you and your doctor can decide whether Surgery is right for you. Before making your decision, you should make sure you are aware of all the options available to you, as well as your physician’s experience as a da Vinci surgeon.

To determine if you are a candidate for da Vinci Surgery, and to ensure you get the information you need from a consultation with your physician, we have put together a brief questionnaire that you can take into your doctor’s appointment with you.

While clinical studies support the effectiveness of the da Vinci^® System when used in minimally invasive surgery, individual results may vary. Surgery with the da Vinci Surgical System may not be appropriate for every individual. Always ask your doctor about all treatment options, as well as their risks and benefits.

Content provided by Intuitive Surgical. For more information on this topic, please visit www.davincisurgery.com

The da Vinci^® Surgical System enables surgeons to perform operations through a few small incisions and features several key features, including:

• Magnified vision system that gives surgeons a 3D HD view inside the patient’s body
• Ergonomically designed console where the surgeon sits while operating
• Patient-side cart where the patient is positioned during surgery
• Wristed instruments that bend and rotate far greater than the human hand

 
The da Vinci S Surgical Robot

The da Vinci System is powered by robotic technology that allows the surgeon’s hand movements to be translated into smaller, precise movements of tiny instruments inside the patient’s body. One of the instruments is a laparoscope – a thin tube with a tiny camera and light at the end. The camera sends images to a video monitor in the operating room to guide doctors during surgery. The surgeon is 100% in control of the da Vinci System at all times.

The da Vinci System has brought minimally invasive surgery to more than 3 million patients worldwide. da Vinci technology – changing the experience of surgery for people around the world.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Serious complications may occur in any surgery, including da Vinci^® Surgery, up to and including death. Individual surgical results may vary. Patients should talk to their doctor to decide if da Vinci Surgery is right for them. Patients and doctors should review all available information on non-surgical and surgical options in order to make an informed decision. Please also refer to http://www.daVinciSurgery.com/Safety for Important Safety Information.

©2018 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. All rights reserved. Product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The information on this website is intended for a United States audience only.

 MIS is surgery typically performed through small incisions, or operating ports, rather than large incisions. This can potentially result in 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.

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 mitral valve repair or nerve-sparing prostatectomy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The da Vinci Surgical System can theoretically be used to operate over long distances. This capability, however, is not the primary focus of the company and thus is not available with the current da Vinci Surgical System.

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.

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.

The product is called “da Vinci” in part because Leonardo da Vinciinvented the first robot. He also used unparalleled anatomical accuracy and three-dimensional details to bring his masterpieces to life. The da Vinci Surgical System similarly provides physicians with such enhanced detail and precision that the System can simulate an open surgical environment while allowing operation through tiny incisions.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Serious complications may occur in any surgery, including da Vinci^® Surgery, up to and including death. Individual surgical results may vary. Patients should talk to their doctor to decide if da Vinci Surgery is right for them. Patients and doctors should review all available information on non-surgical and surgical options in order to make an informed decision. Please also refer to http://www.daVinciSurgery.com/Safety for Important Safety Information.

©2018 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. All rights reserved. Product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The information on this website is intended for a United States audience only.

When considering surgical treatment options, many patients have concerns about safety. In particular, patients question whether da Vinci^® Surgery is as safe as traditional surgery.

In fact, the da Vinci Surgical System has been used successfully in tens of thousands of minimally invasive procedures worldwide. In addition, the da Vinci System offers multiple, redundant safety features, which make the most effective, least invasive approach potentially as safe as traditional surgical methods.

First and foremost, the da Vinci System cannot be programmed, nor can it make decisions on its own. Instead, the da Vinci System requires that every surgical maneuver be performed with direct input from your surgeon.

The da Vinci System surgeon console

With da Vinci Surgery, as with traditional methods, you are under the care of at least two medical professionals: Your surgeon as well as his or her supporting team. Your surgeon requires at least one assistant at your side during surgery. This team-member assists with tasks, such as switching between instruments, to provide your surgeon with the optimal da Vinci instrument for the procedure step being performed.

Just a few feet away, your surgeon operates using the console controls. As your surgeon maneuvers the controls, da Vinci scales, filters and translates his or her wrist and finger movements into precise movements of miniaturized instruments at the patient-side cart. Tremor reduction minimizes unintended movements, which means that da Vinci instruments can move in a more precise manner than a human hand.

And because the da Vinci Patient Cart does the work of holding and repositioning the instruments and camera – and because your surgeon operates while seated — surgeons can experience much less fatigue in performing surgery with the da Vinci System.

Finally, during the course of an operation, the da Vinci System will perform millions of safety self-checks. The System is designed to be fail-safe, which means that in the event of power interruption or a safety-check failure, the System is designed to shut down safely, allowing the surgeon to remain in control of the procedure.

While clinical studies support the effectiveness of the da Vinci^® System when used in minimally invasive surgery, individual results may vary. Surgery with the da Vinci Surgical System may not be appropriate for every individual. Always ask your doctor about all treatment options, as well as their risks and benefits.

Content provided by Intuitive Surgical. For more information on this topic, please visit www.davincisurgery.com