Robotics in Neurosurgery [Video]

While robotics have been used in specialties like general surgery, cardiology, and orthopedics for years, it’s still newer for brain and spine surgeries. “The challenges with minimally invasive surgery in a nervous system, like the brain or the spine, is different from the abdomen or other locations in the body. And so the medium that we have to work through is different. We have to have a very specialized environment,” said Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Fromke.

In March 2022, Lee Health became health system in Southwest Florida to perform a neurosurgical robotic procedure. “And since then, we’ve expanded that into the cranial portion,” said Dr. Fromke. “We were the very first system in Florida to perform a cranial robotics case in only the fourth institution in the USA. And more recently, we became the first institution in all of the USA to perform a robotic procedure for stroke.”

Dr. Fromke said a distinct advantage of robotics is that it allows the surgeon to leave a digital footprint. “We’ll take the surgeon’s digital footprint with analytics. We can drive augmented intelligence to shape physician behavior, to drive out variation in spine surgery or brain surgery.”

Robotics also allows for minimally invasive surgical approaches through 2-millimeter incisions. The early results are positive. “There’s a reduced length of stay for our patients that are getting the robotic procedure. They’re experiencing less post-operative pain. They’re going home earlier,” said Dr. Fromke.

You can learn more by searching for neurosurgery on leehealth.org.

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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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