Oral Cancer and Robotic Surgery: Less Is More In the Operating Room

Receiving a diagnosis of tongue cancer, cancer of the larynx, cheek or lip cancer – any kind of cancer – is a life-altering event. You will never be the same. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still be you. In fact, strides in oncology (cancer-related) surgery have changed, not only the look of the operating room, it’s given hope and a better quality of life to thousands of cancer patients.

The reason is the introduction of robotic surgery – the use of robotic arms to perform delicate operations. Now, some of us might think of “Star Wars” and CP3O, the gold-plated robot with the crisp British accent, fussing about in the operating room but that’s not what robotic surgery is all about.

What Is Robotic Surgery?

It hasn’t been around that long. The University of Rochester Medical Center – a leading edge research and teaching hospital alongside Rochester’s General Hospital – has only been using robotic surgical procedures since 2003. That’s not a long time in terms of medical advancements. But since 2003, the medical center has performed more than 6,000 individual procedures using robotics.

And even today, many hospitals are using non-robotic procedures, operating the old-fashioned way – with surgeon and scalpel.

Now, in many cases, that highly-skilled surgeon wielding that highly-sharpened scalpel is the best course of treatment. Surgical professionals can “feel” things during the operation that wouldn’t be picked up by a surgeon using a robotic arm to perform surgery. In other cases, robotic surgery delivers greatly improved outcomes.

Robotic surgery is nothing more than computer assisted surgery. That same skilled surgeon employs highly sensitive, sophisticated robotic arms to control the entire operation. Sometimes the surgeon isn’t even in the operating theater! Sometimes, he or she isn’t even in the same state! Using real time video, surgical specialists have operated on patients remotely using multiple high-tech, high-resolution video cameras as their eyes and sensitive, precise robotic arms as their arms in the operating room.

Using multiple video cameras and state-of-the art technology, the robotic surgeon has a full, three-dimensional view of the patient and the area under surgery. The monitor used by the surgeon can also zoom in and out, providing the surgeon with complete control over what he sees – a clear, unobstructed view of the entire operation – in full 3-D. It’s like being there, only through a TV screen.

There are three main parts to a robotic surgical device:

the operating console: this is where the surgeon performs her magic. Using joysticks and foot pedals, the surgeon controls everything from the view she sees on the monitor to the exact location of the scalpel down to the tiniest of spaces.

the robotic arms: most systems come with four different robotic arms controlled by the surgeon running the console. Each arm is controlled individually with highly-sensitive, feather touch joysticks that are under the control of the operating surgeon AND computers to add just a touch more precision.

the video system: using multiple cameras positioned around and inside the patient, the operating surgeon controls the view he needs at any given moment during the operation. Zoom in, zoom out, move right, left, up, down – all with the light touch of a hand on a joystick or foot on a pedal.

The surgeon can even direct the video signal to a computer monitor programmed with a grid showing the surgeon exactly where to operate. The signal can also be sent to a specially equipped microscope so the surgeon can look through the microscope’s eye pieces for the closest possible view of the operating field.

While the surgeon may be in another room, the patient is surround by surgical nurses and other surgeons who take directions from the lead surgeon operating the robotic arms, so though a patient may be unconscious, he still receives that all important human touch, even though the surgery itself is being performed by robotic arms. Indeed…

…robotic surgery is the wave of the future, and for good reasons.

Why Robotic Surgery?

First, let’s dispel a common concern many patients have. Robotic surgery doesn’t replace traditional surgery. The operation is under the complete control and watchful eye of a highly-trained authority on surgical procedures.

Robotics is simply another tool surgeons deploy to deliver the best outcomes for their patients. And each year, the features of robotic surgical devices are refined and expanded.

Increased Precision

Even the most practiced, skilled surgeon is only human and when performing very delicate procedures, a steady hand is essential. But even surgeons will tell you that as steady as they are, they can’t stop their hearts; they can’t stop blood pumping through their veins and they can’t be 100% precise in every step of every procedure, again, especially highly complex and delicate operations.

Robotic arms add a level of precision that exceeds what humans are capable of. These devices react smoothly and with complete accuracy. So, for example, the surgeon has more control when operating around nerves – nerves she wants to keep in tact but nerves that are right next to the anatomy being operated on.

Robotic surgery adds a level of precision that wasn’t available just a few short years ago.

Less Bleeding

In many cases, the surgeon can employ technology that cauterizes an incision, a procedure that uses intense heat to close off an open wound. As the incision is made, it can be cauterized, thus preventing excessive bleeding. In fact, many surgeries performed using robotics are almost “bloodless,” requiring fewer blood transfusions during even difficult operations.

Faster Recovery Times

Incisions can be made no bigger than a penny. Then, the surgical staff feeds a video camera into the small incision giving the doctor the whole picture of what’s going on in there. So, instead of a 12” surgical scar, the patient leaves the operating room with a small hole to heal over.

Shorter Hospital Stays

Because of smaller incisions and less blood loss, patients who undergo robotic surgery enjoy shorter hospital stays, moving back home to recuperate more quickly – and any one who’s lived on hospital food for a few weeks knows that home cookin’ beats hospital cooking every time. So, let’s go home!

Robotic Surgery and Oral Cancers

Cancer can strike anywhere in the body. It can be caused by any number of lifestyle and genetic factors. And in the past, when surgery was the best treatment option of cancer patients, these men and women often had to undergo long operations and even longer recovery times.

This was especially true of individuals with various forms of oral cancer. Cancer can appear on the lips, the tongue, cheeks and gums, throat, esophagus, larynx – just about anywhere in the mouth and throat area. Operations to address oral cancers often left patients disfigured, requiring numerous reconstructive surgeries after the initial surgery to remove the oral cancer.

In some cases, the surgical procedure left patients unable to speak, or having to go through extensive rehabilitation to learn to speak all over. The reasons for this are simple. Oral cancers were often difficult to reach, requiring a surgical incision from the exterior of the patient’s body to excise the cancer.

Today, with robotic options, surgeons can better access the point where cancer has appeared using a 3-D video camera that can be snaked down the throat of the anesthetized patient.

This technology enables surgeons to perform more precise surgeries and remove the least amount of cancerous tissue. This laparoscopic approach of treating oral cancers delivers numerous benefits.

This non-invasive surgery allows for greater precision on the part of the surgeon who can pinpoint the exact location of a cancerous growth, for example, and just remove the growth without removing healthy tissue in the process. This greatly improves outcomes for those diagnosed with any form of oral cancer like tongue cancer or cancer of the larynx.

By accessing cancerous tissues using robotics, surgeons can offer minimally invasive options to patients diagnosed with tongue cancer, throat cancer and other oral cancers that, in the past, were extremely difficult to treat surgically.

Today, thanks to robotics, the outcomes for oral surgeries to remove cancerous tissue have improved greatly, providing more tools to medical professions and more options for patients who want to get back into life ASAP.

And isn’t that all of us?