Robotic Surgery at Mt. Nittany Medical Center

More than half of the men who need to have their cancerous prostate removed, now undergo robotic surgery. The techniques are also used for hysterectomy in women. Mount Nittany Medical Center now offers the new technology.
 
Doctor Howard Miller, a urologist at Mount Nittany, uses the da Vinci robot to remove cancer in the prostate and small malignant tumors in the kidney. He says most patients choose robotic surgery for prostatectomy because it leads to fewer problems with incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

According to Dr. Miller, the procedure also offers a quicker recovery. "Patients with the robotic surgery, it's not uncommon to see them out of bed the day of surgery, walking in the hallways, Dr. Miller explains. "I have a lot of patients who take very little pain medication right after surgery and they go home with a prescription for narcotic pain medication and never take it."

Mt Nittany employee Bobbi Bird chose to have her hysterectomy done robotically after hearing that incisions would be smaller and recovery would be quicker. She was apprehensive at first, about trying a new procedure but pleased with the results. She says, "there was no complication, very little pain at all, and the healing process was half of what they said. They said six weeks, within 3 weeks I was back to doing almost everything."  She adds that she was driving within 3 days of the surgery.