Inside the operating room, Dr. Shawn Bench sits about one meter away from the operating table, aligning his forehead to a large machine console resembling the Apple Vision Pro, before proceeding to surgery with his clinical team.
But Bench isn’t actually performing the hernia-repair surgery alone. Instead, he’s working with a new robotic-assisted technology known as da Vinci 5, or dV5.
The successful May 9 operation at Sharp Coronado Hospital was a groundbreaking event.
“I was humbled to be asked to perform the first surgical case using the da Vinci 5 robot here,” said Bench in a press release following the surgery. “It’s an honor to be amongst the first surgeons in the country to utilize this amazing new technology.”
The dV5 is the most advanced robotic-assisted surgical system launched by Intuitive, a California-based company, and the robotic system features a 3D, high-definition vision system technology.
Intuitive says the robot enables surgeries with 43% less force on tissues, resulting in faster, less invasive and cheaper medical care with better patient outcomes.
The system’s three components allowed Bench to control surgical instruments through a console controlled by the system’s “brain,” or vision cart, allowing communication between all components.
Bench, who specializes in hernia repair and has performed thousands of procedures since 2011, said he uses the robot four to seven times a day and sees it as a better way of doing surgery.
“It’s kind of like getting a new car,” Bench added.
One of the first to offer this technology
Sharp HealthCare became one of the first in San Diego to offer this technology with Sharp Memorial Hospital earlier this year.
Sharp Coronado Hospital’s director of surgical services Randy Delacruz said Coronado followed shortly after, housing one of Intuitive’s robots that’s now available to the public.
“There’s a big excitement in the department between physicians and the staff,” said Delacruz. “I believe we have the best physicians, we have the best surgical teams and I think it’s important to have the best technology so they can provide the best care possible. And that’s really the mission and vision of Sharp HealthCare.”
The ‘dV5’
Sharp Coronado has performed nearly 6,000 robotic surgeries on-site in the hospital’s history.
In addition to the other robots housed on the Coronado campus, the da Vinci 5 is the fifth surgical robot.
Intended for minimally invasive surgeries, Intuitive says the technology guarantees shorter hospital stays as well as reduced blood loss and scarring, and faster recovery times.
Inside the operating room, Registered Nurse Matthew Doherty – who serves as robotic coordinator and operating room lead supervisor – said a 15-minute process called draping, in which metals attach sterile drapes to the patient cart, prepares the robot for surgery.
“He is able to keep his head in here, change the settings and continue with surgery,” said Doherty about the console’s benefits for Bench during a surgical procedure. “With this new force feedback, they’ll be able to get that same sensation as when they were doing it laparoscopically.”
In a release earlier this year Sharp Coronado shared that Intuitive’s fifth generation multiport robotic system has been decades in the making and boasts more than 150 enhancements since its last iteration.
And now the dV5 allows for operations using a single, integrated system from Intuitive rather than combined technology from different manufacturers, added Doherty who also noted another significant change is everything being touch screen.
“They used to be a little bit dependent on laparoscopic equipment,” said Doherty. “It’s fully independent now, whereas before it wasn’t.”
But technological independence does not mean the machine takes over medical decision-making that rests on Bench’s fingertips as he handles the console.
“It gives me the autonomy, I think, to do the operation more efficiently and safer,” said Bench. “The robot doesn’t do anything that I don’t tell it to do.”
“It allows me as the surgeon to control every single aspect of the operation,” added Bench. “To be the only one manipulating the instruments on the inside of a patient’s body is really important. …If I was a patient, I think I’d want to hear that.”
Bench, whose father and grandfather are general surgeons like himself, said he has witnessed the evolution of surgery and the development of new medical solutions.
“In the future, there’s going to be even more advancements because there’s all kinds of new things, new technologies that they’re going to add onto the robot currently that the old robot didn’t have,” said Bench.
