Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery Program: Services
Laparoscopic Surgery
A telescope is inserted into the body through a small skin incision and the surgeon
views the surgery on a television monitor. The necessary surgical instruments are
introduced through the other small incisions. The surgeon operates on the area needed
by viewing magnified images projected on the screen.
In addition to surgery, laparoscopy can be used when a diagnosis is in doubt, providing
additional information to confirm the diagnosis. This may involve taking a biopsy
of a suspicious lesion or lymph nodes. The use of diagnostic laparoscopy requires
two to three small incisions.
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Robotically Assisted Surgery
The da Vinci S surgical system provides University of Florida surgeons
with an alternative to both traditional open surgery and conventional laparoscopy,
putting a surgeon's hands at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform.
Using the most advanced MIS platform today, UF surgeons perform complex procedures
with incisions measuring only 8mm while gaining extraordinary dexterity, greater
precision, and with 3-D visualization, superior control.
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Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy is used as a treatment option for localized prostate cancer. The traditional
treatment options offered for localized prostate cancer have been radiation therapies
and radical prostatectomy.
Most patients who have traditionally been ideal candidates for radiation therapy
are also candidates for cryotherapy. Whereas a typical course of external beam radiation
therapy requires daily treatment visits for six to eight weeks, cryotherapy is a
single procedure usually lasting about two hours that can be done on an outpatient
basis.
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Natural Orifice Surgery
Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery, also called NOTES, is another type
of minimally invasive surgery. NOTES is sometimes called scarless surgery, because
instead of making incisions on the outside of the body, surgeons gain access to
an organ or tumor in the gastric or intestinal system by making an incision through
one of the body's natural orifices (mouth, vagina or colon).