Robotic-assisted surgery at UCSF allows thoracic surgeons to perform intricate procedures with a high level of precision and dexterity, providing optimal patient outcomes. Learn from UCSF thoracic surgeons and interventional pulmonologists how advanced robotic technologies are improving diagnosis and expanding options for minimally invasive thoracic surgery.
The robotic surgery program at UCSF really has to do with any devices that have computer-assisted or digital-assisted surgery. So that includes anything from the intuitive da Vinci platform to orthopedic robotic platforms, neurosurgical robotic platforms. There's some plastic surgery robotic platforms, anything having to do with either digital assisted surgery or computer assisted surgery. The robotic surgery program ECSF started in 2012 with the urologists who were looking to do minimally invasive surgery in tight spaces. It was then adopted by the gynecology teams and from there spread out to our general surgery, thoracic teams, and other teams that now use the technology widely. The main focus of my practice is lung cancer, and I do surgery for early stage lung cancer. A lot of that surgery is minimally invasive, about 80%. And the majority of that is robotic assisted minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Robotic surgery has allowed us to do minimally invasive procedures, but in more complex situations and with more precision, I feel. So the hardest parts of doing a lobectomy, for example, are made easier with computer-assisted or digital surgery. Same thing with the thymectomy. Doing minimally invasive surgery in tight spaces is helped with the assistance of a robot. Currently, the robotic bronchoscopy platform has been very helpful in the field of interventional pulmonary, specifically in diagnostics. So over the past several decades there have been various technologies and advancements in increasing the diagnostic yield of lung nodules such as electromagnetic navigation. We have virtual bronchoscopy. Thin and ultra thin bronchoscopes, radial endobronchial ultrasound, and linear endobronchial ultrasound have all been developed to increase our diagnostic yield of lung nodule biopsies and unfortunately the pooled average diagnostic yield at best is about 70th percentile ranging between 40% to up to 80%. So we're still behind our interventional radiology colleagues in getting a very high diagnostic yield above 90% and. The robotic bronchoscopy has helped us surpass that, so it's been very helpful technology for us. The future of robotic bron bronchoscopy is endless in a sense that we have a lot of current research efforts being made to work on various therapeutic modalities of the catheters that deliver microwave ablation. Cryoablation and nonthermal energy deliveries to treat lung cancers and metastatic disease to the lung, obviously in non-surgical patients, uh, they are also studying different ways to treat benign lung diseases. So from the therapeutic modality aspect we have a lot. A lot of research being done as we speak on robotic platforms. I think we're really lucky to be at UCSF, which is in the heart of Silicon Valley. We have the opportunity to partner with innovators in the field and to bring new technology onto campus and to patients at the forefront of care and really lead the field in terms of surgical innovation. And beyond, the main advantages of robotic surgery is that it allows a very high level of precision and dexterity so we can perform intricate procedures on tissues with minimal trauma such as the procedure called an esophagectomy, which is removing the esophagus for oesophageal cancer. We use robotics at UCSF to provide optimal patient outcomes in a multidisciplinary. Experienced teen format using these advanced technologies and a patient centric focus to provide care for our complex patients. Recovery is improved with robotic surgery because incisions are smaller, injury to tissue is less, pain is less after surgery, recovery is quicker, fewer complications associated with smaller incision surgery. Faster return to home from the hospital, return to work, and ultimately decrease costs to the health field as well as society in general. I think what makes UCSF really unique and a really unique place to work is the emphasis on providing innovative care. So of course we want to provide the standard of care, the absolute best standard of care we can, but we want to go beyond that. We want to innovate. We want to do the research, we want to lead the field. We want to find new solutions to patient problems that didn't exist before. Having high volumes and excellent outcome is really, truly, I believe that. Is the holy grail in lung transplantation. And, and lung transplantation lags behind all of the solid organ transplants when it comes to that. And the fact that we've been able to achieve that, I mean, if, if you look at our outcomes over the last two decades, our outcomes have been continuously increasing. Our median survival two decades ago was 3.5 years, and now it's 10.5 years. And this, when you compare to national average right now of 6.5 years, so we're 4 years more compared to the national average. Same for our 3 year outcomes for about the last 5 to 7 years, our 3 year outcomes are now close to 90%, and it again boils down to the philosophy of the team. I think if you wanna go fast, you know, if you're. Just focus on numbers. The saying is you go alone, but if you want to go far, you do it together, and that's truly our philosophy. I think one of the really exciting things about robotics in the future is the ability to augment certain senses. So it's gonna allow us to see better, it's gonna allow us to feel things better, it's gonna allow us to manipulate things better in space, better than we could ever have imagined.
