Eye on Health: Local woman undergoes innovative robotics surgery to prevent colon cancer
Mary Dunn and Dr. Daniel Srikureja, Beacon Medical Group surgeon
Mary Dunn, who lives in Niles, looks and feels healthy today due in large part to the robotics surgery she had in January at Memorial Hospital when doctors removed part of her colon where abnormal polyps had been found during a series of colonoscopies.
Colonoscopies, one of the few medical procedures that can detect and prevent cancer, allow doctors to identify suspicious polyps at an early stage, thereby reducing a patient’s risk of developing cancer.
“(Mary’s) polyps were coming back over and over again and were large enough to be of clinical concern that they would turn into cancer,” said Dr. Daniel Srikureja, surgeon, Beacon Medical Group Trauma and Surgical Services. “Nipping those in the bud and then having a great outcome is really what we were shooting for.”
And it’s precisely what happened thanks to this skilled surgeon and a specialized robotics system.
Dr. Srikureja used the da Vinci surgical system to perform Mary’s procedure with great precision and a much smaller incision than would otherwise be necessary.
“We are able to make much smaller incisions and do everything that we would normally do through a large, 15-inch incision, now through a small three-eighths-inch incision and people are getting better much quicker,” Dr. Srikureja said about advantages of using the da Vinci robot.
Dr. Srikureja is one of the few — if not the only surgeon in the area — who is also able to use the da Vinci surgical system to connect two healthy sections of colon together inside the abdominal cavity rather than outside the body.
“I really had no fears about surgery or the use of robotics. I knew with this modern technology and the expertise of the doctors here that I would be safe,” Mary said. “I was nervous that without surgery, in two or three years this would become cancer.”
The use of da Vinci by the Beacon surgical team not only resulted in a successful surgery, but also a much easier and quicker recovery for Mary.
“I had this vision that for four weeks, I was going to be at home basically reading and watching TV,” she said. “After two weeks, I was out driving a little bit, and I was walking a little bit.”
Mary feels grateful to have access to doctors and technologies usually associated with larger cities and academic institutions. “When you have these advanced technologies right here, that is just an extra plus the staff for the doctors who are trained to do these procedures.”
Click on the video below to see more in our latest WSBT Eye on Health story.
Learn more about da Vinci
When you or a loved one requires surgery, it’s important to consider all your options. da Vinci Surgery is a minimally invasive approach that thousands of Americans have come to trust for major surgery. Beacon Health System pioneered the area’s first da Vinci Surgery program, which began at Memorial Hospital in 2007. Learn more about da Vinci and the procedures for which Beacon surgeons are using the robotics system.
