UCLA Health Urology completed its first single-port robotic surgery in March of 2020, the first in Los Angeles to utilize this innovative technology. The da Vinci robotic systems utilize telemanipulation, which allows surgeons to remotely control instruments from a console, mimicking the movements of the human hand.
The fourth generation of surgical robots, this new SP (single-port) model is the most advanced of its kind, deploying three fully wristed instruments and a flexible camera through a single channel using an approximately 2.5 cm incision. Prior systems required a separate incision for each arm.
Arnold Chin, MD, PhD, an UCLA urologic oncologist, used the new robotic system in a radical prostatectomy, the removal of the prostate gland and surrounding lymph nodes for a patient with prostate cancer. He and others will be expanding the use of this system for both urologic malignancies as well as reconstructive urology.
