Doctors at Main Line Health now have a new kind of robotic surgery that makes recovery quicker and easier for lung cancer patients.
Traditional lung cancer surgery usually involves some pain and a longer recovery. That’s now changing thanks to a specially outfitted robot.
“I bought a house three days later,” Jackie Lyons said.
Lyons was explaining to her surgeon how busy she was right after her lung cancer surgery.
“It was incredible,” Lyons said.
Lyons says she feels lucky having had two bouts with lung cancer, with no symptoms that were found early.
“It’s very scary,” Lyons said. “I’m going to be honest.”
The first surgery to remove part of her lung, in 2017, was traditional.
“It was very painful,” she said. “That took me about a month and a half to really be able to breathe easier.”
Last year, the cancer was back. This time, Lyons turned to Dr. Patrick Ross at Main Line Health.
Ross is now using a less invasive robotic surgery for lung cancer patients like Lyons.
“Single-port robotics, which makes an incision below the ribs rather than going between the ribs,” Ross said. “[The surgery] is game-changing for the patients because there is less pain, quicker return to their usual functions.”
Ross says this new kind of robotic surgery is done with one incision instead of four.
“Traditionally, the four arms of the robot were placed through separate ports,” Ross said. “In the single port technology, all four arms of the robot are contained in one port. That port is placed, and the four arms come out on the inside.”
Lyons says the second surgery with the single-port robot was much less painful with a quicker recovery.
“I was up within a half hour of being in my room,” Lyons said, adding it was “way easier” than the traditional lung cancer surgery she had years ago.
Now cancer-free for a second time, Lyons is impressed with the new technology and back to planning her busy life.
“It’s amazing, honestly,” Lyons said.
Ross says people who have the robotic surgery are usually out of the hospital in a day or two and back to work in about a week.
