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(text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
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Ask the Experts
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What are the advantages of robotic surgery for fibroid treatment?
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Dr. Jason Bromer, Shady Grove Fertility Center: Robotic surgery has been available as a technology
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for greater than 20 years now.
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But its applications to gynecology and reproductive medicine have really just been realized in the last four or five years.
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In the setting of myomectomy, which is removing fibroids from the uterus, it's been traditionally believed
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that for patients who want to maintain their fertility, fibroids would need to be removed through an open incision,
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which would require a few nights' stay in the hospital after the procedure, and usually around the order of four to six weeks
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off from work before they can get back to their normal lives, because it's a very invasive, difficult procedure.
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Myomectomies have been able to be done laparoscopically in the past,
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but because of the limitations of traditional laparoscopic instruments, we don't have the facility to reconstruct the uterus
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in a way that would make it safe for patients to be pregnant afterwards.
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So, patients who wanted to spare their fertility really were told they needed this open, invasive procedure.
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Robotic surgery, because of the additional control we get in operating the instruments,
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allows us to close the uterus and reconstruct the uterus in the same fashion that we could do with an open procedure.
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Now, a patient who would like to have a myomectomy and maintain their fertility can have the minimally invasive surgery
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with, essentially, going home the same day from the hospital. Our patients don't usually even stay overnight in the hospital.
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And we tell them that they will be getting back to their normal activities, frequently, within a week.
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So, that is a very clear advantage for robotic surgery in the setting of myomectomy.
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(text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
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