First Robotics Surgery Unit in Dominican Republic

President Medina / Hospital Metropolitano de Santiago

Yesterday, President Danilo Medina inaugurated the new Robotic Surgery Unit of Hospital Metropolitano de Santiago “da Vinci Si”, the first of its kind in the country.

Dr. Rafael Sánchez Español, explained that the system is able to interpret the surgeon's movements and translate them to scale to the high precision robot. Its three-dimensional vision system allows for greater visibility of the operative field, which makes the surgery safer with less pain and bleeding, less risk of infection, shorter hospital stays, smaller scars and a much more speedy recovery.

The Houston Northwest Medical Center describes the unit as such:

During the procedure, the surgeon’s hand movements are translated through the computer to the robot’s arms that then do the work. Safety mechanisms are in place to ensure that the robot only moves under control of the surgeon. If the surgeon looks away from the computer terminal, the robot locks in place.

The surgeons will be able to use the da Vinci system for a number of laparoscopic procedures (minimally invasive surgery), including head and neck operations, the removal of ovarian cysts and hysterectomies (the surgical removal of the uterus, cervix, ovaries, fallopian tubes and other surrounding structures).

The addition of this Robotic unit required the construction of a surgical area of high complexity, composed of four modern operating rooms, which include the OR Intergration System TEGRIS, created by Maquet.

The TEGRIS system was designed to provide workflow support, video routing and documentation, patient safety, device control and the control of external communications.

The ceremony included a live feed broadcasted in real-time to the National Palace, the Dominican consulates in New York and Puerto Rico, Miami and elsewhere in the United States.

The professional team of Robotic Surgery includes DR. Rafael Sánchez Español, director of Unit;  Juan Félix Capellán, José Álvarez Torres and Héctor Sánchez Navarro.

The surgical team received training from the company Da Vinci surgical laboratories in Houston, Texas, and hospitals in Phoenix, Arizona.