Misconceptions About Robotic Surgery at TidalHealth

SALISBURY, Md. – In this week’s edition of Health Beat, brought to you by TidalHealth, WMDT spoke with Dr. Mindy Lane, a robotic surgeon with TidalHealth, about some misconceptions patients commonly hold about robotic surgery.

Often patients will ask of the robot performed surgery by itself, but Dr. Lane said that is the biggest myth in the field.

“The robot doesn’t make decisions and it doesn’t do surgery by itself,” Dr. Lane said. “The surgeon is an expert in the room.”

Robotic surgery is not brand new by any means, but instead offers an alternative to laparoscopic surgery, which uses small cuts and a thin camera tube to view parts of the body being operated on.

“What the robot does, it gives us wrists and tiny fingers to add that precision to surgeries that we do,” Dr. Lane explained as a laparoscopic surgeon of more than 20 years. “I do believe that that contributes to patients having great outcomes with the robot, quicker recoveries, and an overall better satisfaction.”

She also shared that robotic surgeries are not just for complicated procedures, but in actuality are suited for a wide range of operations.

“In my opinion, I think robotic surgery is well-suited towards any operation that I do,” Dr. Lane concluded. “There isn’t anything that I do that I wouldn’t offer the patient robotic surgery for.”