Northwest Health surgeons tout benefits of increase in robotic surgeries
The three-part DaVinci 5 Robotic System has been in use at the hospital for the past month.
Bryttney VanGoethem of LaPorte rearranged her schedule so she could see it in person. 'My grandma is getting surgery done,' she said. 'We found out she has colon cancer.'
General surgeon Jeremy Luedtke, whom the family will be meeting with in the coming weeks, has been using the DaVinci for the past three weeks and has experience with other robotic systems as well. He uses the robot for colon cancer surgery as well as inguinal hernia and gall bladder removal surgeries.
He said the benefits are considerable, from less pain and recovery time to speed of surgery and lower cost. Luedtke said the robot, which is fully operated in real time by the surgeon, is generally less disruptive of tissue than human hands.
'I always joke with my patients. I say, 'Look at my hand,'' he says, splaying his meaty fingers. 'That amount of tissue manipulation (by the robot) reduces pain.'
The DaVinci is a three-part system made up of a console at which the surgeon sits and manipulates the instruments via controllers; cameras and a screen fitted to the face; a tower that coordinates various cameras and insufflation, which is the filling of body cavities with gas so the surgeon has room to work and can see the interior of the body; and the robot, which is comprised of four arms.
Many instruments can be fitted on the arms for a variety of surgical needs, though two of them are always used for insufflation and cameras.
'I have pared down the number of instruments that I use because it helps with setup and cost-saving,' Luedtke said.
To highlight the improvement in recovery time patients can expect with robotic surgery, Luedtke gives an inguinal hernia repair as an example. A traditional surgery would require at least eight weeks of recovery with the patient restricted to lifting less than 10 pounds while being sent home with 30 narcotic painkillers.
Robotic surgery reduces recovery time to four weeks with a lifting limit of 20 pounds and only three narcotic pills. 'A lot of times people are not even filling them,' Luedtke said of the drug.
VanGoethem got a chance to sit at the console and control the robotic arms. It's a technology that was developed by NASA in the late '70s, Luedtke said.
'It was really neat,' VanGoethem said of the experience.
Ten-year-old Addison Martin, of Valparaiso, got to try out the robot her dad, surgeon Andrew Martin, uses for general and bariatric surgeries at Northwest Health's Porter and LaPorte campuses.
'It was fun because it's like video games,' she said. Andrew Martin has been performing surgeries with robotics for the past five years.
He said he employs robots in 60% of his surgeries. 'The things that we can use it for, we do, because it helps with patient recovery,' he said. 'We're still operating the robot. It's not like it's an autonomous thing.'
There are some circumstances where robotics are contraindicated in surgery, such as when a patient has had many other surgeries that resulted in too much scar tissue, or cannot tolerate being under full anesthesia.
James Fastero, clinical sales manager with DaVinci maker Intuitive Surgical, said the Porter campus has been using the DaVinci XI model since 2014. He said the indication of use has grown over the last 10 to 15 years for robotics in soft tissue surgeries.
Fastero said robotic surgery is equal to or has surpassed laproscopic surgery frequency. The 'wristed' instrumentation of the robot is considered more agile than the 'straight stick' design of laproscopic devices. He said robotic surgery is more widespread in Northwest Indiana than people realize. The benefits don't stop with the patient, but also apply to the surgeon.
'They (the surgeons) can sit down. They can be more comfortable. They can have better vision and better instruments,' he said.
Medical schools are also on board, turning out new doctors ready to hit the ground sitting down at those robotic consoles for many future surgeries. Fastero said 80% of all residency fellows complete their training with some experience on robots.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
I Spent 30 Minutes in a $160,000 Wellness Chamber. Here's What Happened
When I stepped into the Airstream parked on New York City's 5th Avenue housing the Ammortal Chamber, I wasn't expecting transformation. At most, possibly a fleeting break from my inbox. Maybe a brief mental pause. A few moments of calm, if I was lucky. After all, I'm a health journalist who has downloaded (and abandoned) every meditation app on the market. My inner skeptic came in loud. But so did my curiosity. I'd seen the buzz. Read the testimonials. And if there was even a sliver of a chance this device could live up to its claims, I had to find out for myself. More from Flow Space This Menopause Symptom Ruins Sleep, Wrecks Focus and Fuels Panic-And No One Talks About It Spoiler: it did. The Ammortal Chamber Experience Let's get one thing straight from the jump—this isn't your typical spa treatment. With a price tag of $159,500 (or about $3,000 a month with available financing options), the Ammortal Chamber lands firmly in the luxury wellness category. It's a high-end, multi-modality system that layers together red and near-infrared light therapy, PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic fields), vibroacoustic sound, guided breathwork and molecular hydrogen inhalation—all while you recline in a zero-gravity position straight out of NASA's playbook. A session? Just 30 minutes. (Which, in modern-woman time, is basically just a long coffee break.) While the chamber offers seven different energy-outcome sequences designed on how the user wants to feel when the session ends (some are designed to energize and empower, some are aimed at recovery, including promoting sleep or physical and mental restoration, while others focus on releasing and embracing to help users deal with various issues), I was aptly set to partake in the 'Flow' program—designed to leave you relaxed yet alert. Think post-yoga brain with a splash of non-jittery espresso energy. I'd been mentally marinating in stress for days, so when I was asked to 'set an intention' for my session, I chose to go of the most obvious (but hardly simple for an anxiety-prone Virgo such as myself): let go of something I couldn't control. The lights dimmed. A calming voice guided me through breathwork as waves of sound and vibration moved through my body. Custom multi-layered music filled the chamber with different frequencies and sounds, while specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared (NIR) light penetrated my skin and underlying tissues (protective eyewear simply made the photobiomodulation feel like soft light pulsing around me). And then, something unexpected happened—my overactive brain stopped trying to dissect every moment and just… surrendered. It was like being wrapped in a cocoon woven from light and sound. By the end, I felt like I'd had just finished one of my favorite and most relaxing self-care treatments: acupuncture, minus the needles and post-treatment haze. I strolled back to my office, knocked out a full afternoon of work with zero stress, and barely gave a second thought to the thing I'd been spiraling over earlier. Ammortal's Origin Story Curious how a $160K wellness pod came to be? So was I. A few weeks later, I caught up with co-founders Brian Le Gette and Rob Insinger to find out what sparked the idea. Neither hails from Silicon Valley's wellness-tech bubble. Le Gette spent years in consumer products, and Insinger's background weaves through hospitality, pharma and luxury wellness. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, then teamed up with Dr. Steven Young, a holistic coach with a doctorate in physical therapy, who'd been quietly experimenting with electromagnetic therapies on pro athletes. 'The idea [is] to optimize, connect, expand the body and mind, to enable each of them to more easily recognize and fulfill their potential,' Le Gette tells Flow Space. 'We designed the chamber… all with a goal towards human vibrancy, which, for us, is this kind of pinnacle point of light. You [can] really define it any way you want, but it's very positive and a great goal, right? Maybe something you never reach, which feels fine. But if we can impact anyone along their path towards their most vibrant self, and they are, in theory, more connected to what they're here to do, what they enjoy doing, then society benefits from that.' 'We live in the modern world. We are overloaded, and it's happened so fast that humankind has not even had a chance to adapt,' Le Gette continues. 'All of these things have stacked really fast, just in a few decades, onto a human being who typically had thousands of years to adapt to its changing environment. And so the chamber, because of the work on the body and mind, creates that coherent moment. We liken it to putting your head above water… for some of these people, maybe for the first time.' Why It Clicks—Especially for Women in Midlife If there's one resource midlife women don't have in abundance, it's time. Between career demands, caregiving duties, hormone chaos and general decision fatigue, efficiency matters. A lot. That's where the Ammortal Chamber shines: it stacks what would otherwise be separate therapies—red light, PEMF, breathwork, sound healing, even meditation—into one fully choreographed, half-hour session. 'Each [therapy] compounds the effectiveness and the benefit of the other, and the combination,' Le Gette explains, 'and saves hours of time compared to using them separately.' They're not positioning the Chamber as a medical device—and they're clear about not making clinical claims—but the user feedback speaks volumes. Women report sleeping better, feeling calmer, thinking more clearly. In short: less mental static, more clarity. Insinger's wife is in perimenopause, and he's heard firsthand how the experience lands—and not just from his family and friends but huge numbers of midlife women who've had the chance to experience the Ammortal Chamber. 'I love how open a lot of these women are they they talk about their struggles,' Insinger says. 'When they get out [of the chamber], oftentimes, it's like, 'Oh my god, I just feel so much lighter. I had just had all these things that felt like they were building up behind the dam, and it's about to break… it's relieved a lot of those things.'' Another user told him: 'I have 16 things that I'm thinking about Rob, and I don't know which ones matter and which ones don't… Then after I get out of the chamber, it's like they all go like in a puddle.' Anyone navigating hormone-driven fog, relentless stress or simply the weight of invisible labour knows how rare that kind of mental reset is. Ammortal Chamber's Science (and Gray Areas) Of course, not every modality here has airtight clinical consensus behind it. Red and near-infrared light? Backed by a growing body of peer-reviewed research. PEMF? Promising for things like pain and recovery. Hydrogen inhalation? More early-stage and experimental. But that's the thing—the science is still catching up to the experience. And while you could debate the efficacy of each element, there's no denying the chamber is intentionally engineered. It doesn't just toss tech at you; it choreographs it into something immersive, even meditative. And if you're someone who struggles to sit still, much less 'clear your mind,' this might just be the nudge you didn't know you needed. The Verdict Would I drop $160,000 to have one in my living room? Honestly, no. (Well, probably, if I had a multi-million-dollar trust fund, yet alas, I don't.) But would I shell out $50 for a 30-minute session at a wellness club down the street? Absolutely. On repeat. The way I felt after that single session wasn't just relaxed—it was like someone turned the volume down on my stress and turned the lights back on in my brain. Subtle, but powerful. Like mental WD-40. For midlife women feeling stretched, foggy or on the edge of burnout, the Ammortal Chamber isn't a magic bullet—but it does come surprisingly close to feeling like one. And sometimes, that's exactly what we need to keep going. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Israeli hospital to join NASA, SpaceX mission to study microgravity's effects on diseases
For this experiment, Sheba will partner with the US firm SpaceTango to grow several bacterial species aboard the ISS using a specially designed Earth-controlled system. Sheba Medical Center's ARC Digital Innovation Center is joining a NASA and SpaceX mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday for a study on the extreme conditions of space, Sheba announced on Wednesday. The experiment, dubbed the ARC Space Lab, is the second of its kind from Sheba, which remains the only hospital in Israel carrying out studies in space. How does microgravity impact diseases? One of the major barriers facing humankind's continued expansion into outer space is the unknown effects of long-term space travel on the human body. Finding out how to help astronauts adapt to challenges they may face when off planet for extended periods of time is a natural and essential step forward for medical science. For this experiment, Sheba will partner with the US firm SpaceTango to grow several bacterial species aboard the ISS using a specially designed Earth-controlled system. After growth under microgravity, the bacteria will be stabilized, frozen at -80°C and returned to Earth for molecular and transcriptional analysis and direct comparison to bacteria grown simultaneously in an identical lab setup on Earth. It is known that space has an impact on bacteria. For example, astronauts are more likely to develop infections, theorized to be due to a combination of microgravity, radiation, stress, and changes in the human microbiome. However, this goes both ways. In a previous ARC Space Lab study, it was found that bacteria in space are less likely to develop antibiotic resistance. This was a major discovery and went against the prevailing hypotheses of the time, and the findings of this study were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Microbiology Spectrum. 'We know that space conditions affect bacterial behavior, including how they grow, express genes, and acquire traits like antibiotic resistance or virulence,' Sheba Infectious Diseases Unit head Prof. Ohad Gal-Mor said in a statement. 'This experiment will allow us, for the first time, to systematically and molecularly map how the genetic expression profile of several pathogenic bacteria changes in space. The insights we gain will augment our understanding of infectious disease risks in space travel, and also expand our knowledge of gene regulation and bacterial physiology in general.' Sheba ARC director Prof. Eyal Zimlichman added, 'To understand the limits of medicine, we sometimes need to go beyond the limits of Earth. Our experiment in space examines how bacterial behavior changes under extreme conditions and what that means for human health—not just for astronauts, but also here on Earth. This is part of ARC's mission to shape the future of medicine, wherever it's needed.' Solve the daily Crossword
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Northwest Health surgeons tout benefits of increase in robotic surgeries
With estimates that roughly 15% of all surgeries use robots, an open house Tuesday afternoon at Northwest Health Porter in Valparaiso was a timely opportunity for the public to try out the technology for themselves. The three-part DaVinci 5 Robotic System has been in use at the hospital for the past month. Bryttney VanGoethem of LaPorte rearranged her schedule so she could see it in person. 'My grandma is getting surgery done,' she said. 'We found out she has colon cancer.' General surgeon Jeremy Luedtke, whom the family will be meeting with in the coming weeks, has been using the DaVinci for the past three weeks and has experience with other robotic systems as well. He uses the robot for colon cancer surgery as well as inguinal hernia and gall bladder removal surgeries. He said the benefits are considerable, from less pain and recovery time to speed of surgery and lower cost. Luedtke said the robot, which is fully operated in real time by the surgeon, is generally less disruptive of tissue than human hands. 'I always joke with my patients. I say, 'Look at my hand,'' he says, splaying his meaty fingers. 'That amount of tissue manipulation (by the robot) reduces pain.' The DaVinci is a three-part system made up of a console at which the surgeon sits and manipulates the instruments via controllers; cameras and a screen fitted to the face; a tower that coordinates various cameras and insufflation, which is the filling of body cavities with gas so the surgeon has room to work and can see the interior of the body; and the robot, which is comprised of four arms. Many instruments can be fitted on the arms for a variety of surgical needs, though two of them are always used for insufflation and cameras. 'I have pared down the number of instruments that I use because it helps with setup and cost-saving,' Luedtke said. To highlight the improvement in recovery time patients can expect with robotic surgery, Luedtke gives an inguinal hernia repair as an example. A traditional surgery would require at least eight weeks of recovery with the patient restricted to lifting less than 10 pounds while being sent home with 30 narcotic painkillers. Robotic surgery reduces recovery time to four weeks with a lifting limit of 20 pounds and only three narcotic pills. 'A lot of times people are not even filling them,' Luedtke said of the drug. VanGoethem got a chance to sit at the console and control the robotic arms. It's a technology that was developed by NASA in the late '70s, Luedtke said. 'It was really neat,' VanGoethem said of the experience. Ten-year-old Addison Martin, of Valparaiso, got to try out the robot her dad, surgeon Andrew Martin, uses for general and bariatric surgeries at Northwest Health's Porter and LaPorte campuses. 'It was fun because it's like video games,' she said. Andrew Martin has been performing surgeries with robotics for the past five years. He said he employs robots in 60% of his surgeries. 'The things that we can use it for, we do, because it helps with patient recovery,' he said. 'We're still operating the robot. It's not like it's an autonomous thing.' There are some circumstances where robotics are contraindicated in surgery, such as when a patient has had many other surgeries that resulted in too much scar tissue, or cannot tolerate being under full anesthesia. James Fastero, clinical sales manager with DaVinci maker Intuitive Surgical, said the Porter campus has been using the DaVinci XI model since 2014. He said the indication of use has grown over the last 10 to 15 years for robotics in soft tissue surgeries. Fastero said robotic surgery is equal to or has surpassed laproscopic surgery frequency. The 'wristed' instrumentation of the robot is considered more agile than the 'straight stick' design of laproscopic devices. He said robotic surgery is more widespread in Northwest Indiana than people realize. The benefits don't stop with the patient, but also apply to the surgeon. 'They (the surgeons) can sit down. They can be more comfortable. They can have better vision and better instruments,' he said. Medical schools are also on board, turning out new doctors ready to hit the ground sitting down at those robotic consoles for many future surgeries. Fastero said 80% of all residency fellows complete their training with some experience on robots.
