Doctors at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital https://emoryhealthcare.org are the first in Georgia to use a new state-of-the-art robot to diagnose lung cancers earlier and less invasively.
The Ion robot made by Intuitive Surgical Inc. https://isrg.intuitive.com, is capable of reaching deep into the peripheral areas of the lung so that doctors are able to biopsy suspicious tissue to diagnose lung cancers earlier.
Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the southeast to use the robot to get real time information as to whether the tissue is cancerous and then potentially proceed immediately to surgical treatment.
During the robotic-assisted bronchoscopy, a doctor uses a controller with a heads up display to navigate the camera equipped catheter along a pre-planned path through the lung airways. With its 3.5 millimeter size and the ability to articulate 180 degrees in any direction, the Ion robot is capable of reaching all 18 segments of the lung. Once the targeted area is reached, a flexible needle is used to biopsy the suspect tissue.
According to Manu Sancheti, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, Chief of Thoracic Surgery and Medical Director of Perioperative Services at the hospital, “When used in the hospital’s state-of-the-art hybrid operating room alongside Intuitive’s da Vinci surgical robots, the Ion robot allows us to diagnose early stage lung cancers and treat them all in the same surgical session which enables us to shave weeks off the treatment regimen.”