Although fibroids are often benign tumours, they can cause many complaints in women. Fibroids, which cause problems such as frequent and irregular bleeding, pelvic pain, frequent urination and infertility and which are seen in about 20-25% of women of reproductive age, need to be removed surgically if they cause complaints of this kind.
Fibroids can today be treated with robotic surgery. In this way treatment can be provided with little blood loss and a rapid recovery process, while the likelihood of a rupture of the uterus during a future pregnancy can be reduced.
Recovering with robot-assisted treatment
Thanks to the myomectomy procedure performed with robotic surgery, the separation of the fibroids from the healthy neighbouring myometrium tissue (the smooth muscle cells of the uterus) around them, which has to be preserved, can be carried out much better under a three-dimensional image.
With this method the doctor, who can work on the tissues as if under a microscope and perform a delicate operation, can ensure that the damage to the tissue is far less.
While the suturing of the uterus can be performed more easily, quickly and effectively thanks to the articulated arms that transmit the movements of the human hand exactly, compared with open surgical methods (laparotomy) there are also far fewer adhesions inside the abdomen. In addition, pain after the operation is far less and patients can return to daily life earlier.
The operation process and the advantages of the technique
Fibroid treatment with robotic surgery, which is more comfortable than open operations, is performed under general anaesthesia.
The operation begins by placing the arms of the robot carrying the camera and the other instruments into the abdomen through four incisions smaller than 1 cm.
In robotic surgery, thanks to the camera with three-dimensional vision and 16 times magnification, the borders of the fibroids can be distinguished clearly. The fibroids are reduced in size with a special device and taken out of the abdomen through the small incisions through which the robotic arms pass.
Because the robotic arms can move in more directions than human hands, the area from which the fibroid was removed can be closed better, and because the procedure is carried out through an extremely small incision, the risk of complications after the operation such as infection is also at a very low level.
In this way the patient can be discharged after staying in hospital for at most one day. Depending on the patient’s general state of health, it is also possible to leave the hospital on the same day.