Sentara Potomac Hospital is pleased to be the first provider of the da Vinci® Surgical System in the Prince William area.
When you need surgery, it’s important to get your body back up and running as quickly as possible. da Vinci technology offers your surgeon unparalleled precision, perfectly matched for moving delicately inside the body.
For you, this means less time in the hospital and more time for you to get back to your life.
Doctors at Sentara Potomac Hospital are now using new da Vinci® technology to perform many different surgical procedures including:
The Advantages of the da Vinci® System
With the da Vinci® Surgical System, surgeons have state-of-the-art robotics technology at their fingertips -- their hand movements are mimicked precisely by tiny surgical instruments.
“We are excited to offer this technology at Sentara Potomac Hospital,” said Dr. Pratik Desai, urologist. “Robot-assisted technology offers patients many benefits including shorter hospital stays, less pain and risk of infection, less scarring, faster recovery and a quicker return to normal activities.”
The da Vinci® Surgical System gives surgeons unprecedented control and three-dimensional views of the body’s anatomy. This means surgeries that once required incisions can now be performed through tiny surgical openings. The robotic system operates through the surgeon, as an extension of his movements.
The system also provides full freedom of movement at its instrument tips, allowing precise operation in a closed chest, abdomen or pelvis.
"By enhancing surgical capability through the da Vinci® system, we are able to provide patients with better clinical outcomes so they can return to active, productive lives more quickly,” said Inderjit Singh, M.D., urologist. “Overall, it’s an easier surgical experience for our patients.”
Dr. Desai is one of a few urologists in the country and one of two in Northern Virginia who has completed a two-year urologic oncology fellowship, with special training in robotics and laparoscopy. He and his partner, Dr. Ek Lou, who is a specially-trained urologist with more than 30 years of surgical experience, are part of Potomac Urology, which is located in The Potomac Center, 2296 Opitz Boulevard, suite 300, in Woodbridge. Telephone: (703) 680-2111.
Patient Stories
Hear about the da Vinci experience from patients in their own words on daVinciStories.com. You can browse through patient stories, watch video testimonials or search for specific stories that may match your own circumstances.
da Vinci® Prostatectomy and Video
If your doctor recommends surgery to treat your prostate cancer, you may be a candidate for a new, less-invasive surgical procedure called da Vinci® Prostatectomy at Sentara Potomac Hospital.
For most patients, da Vinci® Prostatectomy offers numerous potential benefits over open prostatectomy including:
- Shorter hospital stay
- Less pain
- Less risk of infection
- Less blood loss and transfusions
- Less scarring
- Faster recovery
- Quicker return to normal activities
As with any surgical procedure, these benefits cannot be guaranteed, as surgery is both patient- and procedure-specific.
da Vinci® Prostatectomy Video
For many patients approaching surgery, it is often difficult to visualize what is involved in a specific surgical procedure. To give prospective da Vinci® Prostatectomy patients a better understanding of the advances made by robotically-assisted minimally invasive surgery, we have produced the following video presentation.
This video offers a three-dimensional simulation of the male reproductive anatomy, the enabling technology -- the da Vinci® Surgical System -- and the procedure itself.
 |
Click on the image to the left or the link below to begin the video presentation. You will need to have Windows Media Player installed on your computer.
>
Watch video |
For more information about Dr. Lou, Dr. Desai and other surgeons and doctors on Sentara Potomac Hospital’s Medical Staff, click here.About da Vinci® Sacrocolpopexy
More than 120,000 women are surgically treated each year in the United States for uterine and vaginal vault prolapse, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
When a woman’s connective tissues or muscles in the pelvic area are weakened, they are often unable to hold the pelvis in its natural orientation. This weakening can occur with age, after childbirth, with weight gain and strenuous physical labor. Over time it can also cause prolapse (or falling) of the vagina, uterus, bladder or rectum and can lead to problems with urinary incontinence, vaginal ulceration, sexual dysfunction and/or bowel movements.
A sacrocolpopexy is the procedure to correct vaginal vault prolapse. During this surgery, mesh is inserted to hold the vagina in the correct position.
Sacrocolpopexy has traditionally been performed as an open surgery using a 15-30 cm horizontal incision in the lower abdomen. The new da Vinci® technology allows surgeons to perform sacrocolpopexies through just a few tiny openings. For most women, this less invasive procedure has many benefits including:
- Shorter hospital stay
- Less pain
- Less risk of infection
- Less blood loss and transfusions
- Less scarring
- Faster recovery
- Quicker return to normal activities
As with any surgery, these benefits cannot be guaranteed. Ask your doctor if you might be a candidate for the da Vinci® Sacrocolpopexy.
About da Vinci Hysterectomy and Myomectomy
In the past, hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) procedures were invasive, and not only did women have to stay in the hospital for a couple of nights, they had very long recovery periods as compared to today’s patients. Other gynecological conditions, such as chronic pain, fibroids and ovarian cysts, can now also be treated using the da Vinci® robotic-assisted surgical system.
“A quicker recovery period and less pain can be expected after all the procedures that we perform with robotics,” explains Dr. Richard Jenet, an Ob/Gyn on Potomac’s medical staff who’s specially trained in robotic surgery. “This technology is giving us the opportunity to provide the best care for our patients with minimal complications.”
“In the past when treating uterine fibroids we would perform a hysterectomy and remove the entire uterus,” explains Dr. Jenet. “Now, with da Vinci, we can perform a myomectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove only the fibroids through very small incisions.”
Most hysterectomies and myomectomies are performed through conventional open surgery or laparoscopy. These procedures pose more risks and future complications and require a much longer recovery period.
Ask your doctor if you might be a candidate for the
da Vinci hysterectomy or
da Vinci myomectomy.
da Vinci Surgery for Kidney Conditions
Kidney surgery is traditionally performed using an open approach, which requires a large abdominal incision. Another approach, conventional laparoscopy, is less invasive, but limits the doctor’s dexterity, visualization and control, compared to open surgery.
da Vinci surgery for kidney conditions gives patients a new and easier surgical alternative. da Vinci’s precision and dexterity give surgeons a minimally invasive approach for treating kidney disorders and kidney cancer.
da Vinci kidney surgery may be used to treat blockage of the ureters, which are the tubes that transport urine from the kidneys to the bladder. Blockages can be present from birth or the result of illness or injury, and can create serious side effects like infections and kidney stones. If left untreated, blockages can cause chronic pain and may damage the kidney over time.
Non-cancerous kidney conditions involving a blockage can usually be treated by removing it; depending on the type of blockage, surgery may be used. Surgeons at Potomac Hospital are also using da Vinci technology to treat kidney cancer. Cancer can form in the small tubes inside the kidney and in the center of the kidney where urine collects.
Because kidney cancer is does not respond to radiation and chemotherapy, it is treated by removing the kidney (nephrectomy) or kidney tumors (partial nephrectomy).
da Vinci kidney surgery (shown on right) is less invasive than traditional open abdominal and laparoscopic surgery.
Other da Vinci Surgeries
More doctors are beginning to use da Vinci technology at Sentara Potomac Hospital to make surgeries easier for their patients.
da Vinci technology is also used to perform lower anterior resections of the colon to treat colon cancer.
For More Information
As with any surgical procedure, the results cannot be guaranteed, as surgery is both patient- and procedure-specific, so be sure to talk with your doctor about what would be best for you.
Click here to receive our free brochure on the da Vinci Robotic-Assisted Surgical System.
