Loyola Medicine

Loyola University Health System offers robotic surgery for a number of surgical procedures that would otherwise require large incisions and long recovery times.

We are one of the first medical centers in the Chicago area to offer this minimally invasive option for women's pelvic reconstructive surgical procedures for vaginal prolapse and incontinence.

The minimally invasive robot technology is designed to provide surgeons with enhanced capabilities, including three-dimensional visualization, precision and control.

Robotic surgery is now being used routinely by Loyola cardiovascular surgeons, gynecologists, gynecologic oncologists, urogynecologists and urologists.

For patients, the benefits are significant and may include:

• Improved healing
• Reduced blood loss
• Shorter hospital stay
• Shorter recovery time
• Smaller incisions
• Quicker return to normal activities

The robotic system works by translating your surgeon's hand movements on the robotic controls into more precise movements of the miniaturized instruments that are inserted into the body.

A tiny camera is inserted through a small incision so that the surgeon can see inside the body on a three-dimensional screen and control every move of the robotic arms from a computer console. The robot's arms are fully jointed, allowing them to turn and grasp with more agility and precision than the human hand.

Although many procedures take about the same amount of time as an open-incision surgery, the recovery time is lessened because you do not have to recuperate from a large incision.

Minimally invasive surgery performed at Loyola includes:

Women's Services

• Hysterectomy
• Sacrocolpopexy, or prolapse surgery
• Ureteral reimplantation following injury during hysterectomy
• Myomectomy, or fibroid surgery
• Endometriosis
• Female cancer surgery
• Vesicovaginal fistula repair
• Ureterovaginal fistula repair

Heart Care

• Mitral valve repair
• Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
• Patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal defect (ASD) closures
• Resection of mediastinal and lung tumors

Urology

• Radical nephrectomy
• Partial nephrectomy
• Radical cystectomy
• Pyeloplasty