Surgeons Showcase Robotic Program at CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital by Dying Easter Eggs

In the spirit of the upcoming Easter holiday, physicians at CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital used one of the hospital’s surgical robots to dye and paint Easter eggs.

The da Vinci Surgical System is used for a variety of surgeries, including abdominal, gynecological, prostate, bariatric, hernia and most general surgeries. It’s a technological advancement that has benefited both doctors and patients by providing precision that shortens operating times in many surgeries and allows for a quicker recovery for the patients. The first robotic surgery was performed at St. Patrick Hospital in 2006.

“The benefits of robotic surgery is precision that allows for smaller incisions compared to the traditional open surgery, and that's going to allow us to get our patients back to work and back to their home life a lot quicker,” said Matias Nauts, D.O. “They have less pain, smaller incisions and the recovery time is going to be much shorter.”

The surgeon is in the operating room with the patient at all times and controls the da Vinci robot using foot pedals and hand-driven controls. The surgeon views the procedure through a console.

“We are controlling the robot,” said Justin Rudd, M.D. “It’s an extension of our hands. I'm in the room at all times. I'm the one who is at a console, and like on the video for the eggs, everything that those hands and wrists are doing to dye the eggs, that's me controlling it from the console. The robot is mimicking my hand and arm movements.”

Becoming certified to perform robotic surgeries requires extensive training, including hours of simulations, live robotic surgery observations and ands-on training using pigs in a porcine lab, because pigs most closely resemble the internal anatomy of a human.

The two da Vinci robots at CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital are two of seven robotic systems the hospital has added to its surgical tool belt. A Mako unit was added in 2015 for use in orthopedic surgeries, an ExcelsiusGPS and 3D neurorobot was added in 2022 for minimally invasive spine and neurosurgeries and earlier this year, the hospital added an Ion Ebus unit, which is used for minimally invasive lung biopsies. There is also a tru-d robot at each hospital that is used for sanitizing and sterilizing patient rooms.

“Robotic surgery allows you to use your hands on a much smaller scale inside the patient,” Rudd said. “The progression of surgery over the years has gone from open to minimally invasive and this is just yet another expanse into the minimally invasive surgery. From thoracic surgery, GYN, urology, general surgery and multiple other disciplines, we can now use this technology in ways that are getting our patients back to their lives and activities they enjoy much quicker.”