Good MOrning America & robotic surgery.....

[Guest guest]

Anybody watch Good Morning America this a.m. and see this story? Just

to answer a few questions before they get posted....robotic equipment

described in this piece has NOT been approved by FDA for this

use.....equipment is very, very expensive ($1M)....and few facilities

have it. Oh, and U of Michigan is NOT the only hospital using this

robot. It may be the only PUBLIC hospital -- but there are federal

hospitals with the equipment as well.

WABC 10/4/02 - 8:10 AM... And i said, well, it may be that i do have

fibroid tumors. >> Fibroid tumors vary in size and location on a woman's

uterus. They affect roughry one out of four white women and one out of

two black women. Of the 600,000 hist rectories performed each year, 30%

are due to uterine fibroids. >> I was under stress because of the

fibroids . I was constantly worried about the baby because i didn't know

what could happen. >> What happened? A delivery six weeks early. Little

tyler was fully developed, a heltsy baby boy. Joanne's doctors said the

fibroids would threaten more chance for more children. A doctor to the

rescue with a brand-new technology that may mean a woman can keep her

uterus and the chance to have a baby. >> I think a lot of women feel

they have to give up their fertility if they have uterine fibroids .

That's not the case. >> The secret weapon? The mona lisa. No, this mona

lisa. That's the hospital's nickname for the seven-foot surgical robot.

>> This is the camera arm as you can see that holds the camera in

place....

WABC 10/4/02 - 8:11 AM... The robot arms can actually rotate a full 360

degrees. Something a surgeon's arms could never do. And no tremor, no

jiggle. The university of michigan is the first and only hospital

applying robotic technology in this type of surgery. So far 20 women

have had their fibroids removed by the mona lisa. >> What excites me

being able to perform this surgery, it's giving me a clans to provide

more options for them and not leave them limited with one or two

choices, which one of them is hist rectory. >> 42-Year-old suffered from

painful periods and excessive bleeding. She is about to undergo the

robotic surgery to remove two fibroids instead of her uterus. >> I was

happy to not hear the h-word come up. A hysterectomy is the worst-cation

scenario. Even at my-month in life when i don't want more children, i

want to keep my body in tact. It feels futuristic in a great sort of

way. I kept thinking of " star trek " the doctor would wave his hand over

your body and you would be fine. This seems to be the closest thing to

that. >> When i was in medical school,...

WABC 10/4/02 - 8:12 AM... two choices, which one of them is hist

rectory. >> 42-Year-old suffered from painful periods and excessive

bleeding. She is about to undergo the robotic surgery to remove two

fibroids instead of her uterus. >> I was happy to not hear the h-word

come up. A hysterectomy is the worst-cation scenario. Even at my-month

in life when i don't want more children, i want to keep my body in tact.

It feels futuristic in a great sort of way. I kept thinking of " star

trek " the doctor would wave his hand over your body and you would be

fine. This seems to be the closest thing to that. >> When i was in

medical school, did i not envision operating with the aid of a robot. To

come this far in that short amount of time, makes me extremely excited

about what the next 10 years holds for medicine. >> is here with

me now. I guess it's sort of an old-man's reaction, but that doctor

looked so young. >> Eagle scout, these days. >> She just had the

surgery? >> Yes. She did and she took the rest of the week off and will

be back at work monday....

WABC 10/4/02 - 8:14 AM... university of michigan where this is being

done, what do you do about fibroid tumors? >> There are lots of things

to it. You have to say, what stage of life am i? Do i want to keep my

uterus? There are a lot of different operations without doing a

hysterectomy . Some cause you your fertility because they ruin the

inside lining of the uterus. See your options. The break throughs aren't

all covered by insurance. Depending on who your carrier is, will you

have to do your homework too. >>

[Guest guest]

I just saw a brief story on the local news. It was presented as if

it was the only fertility-saving option to hysterectomy, as if

traditional myomectomy surgery did not exist. Since it is so very

expensive and new, I wonder if insurance companies would cover it.

Would the average fibroid sufferer be able to afford to pay for this

out of pocket?

Therese

> Anybody watch Good Morning America this a.m. and see this story?

Just

> to answer a few questions before they get posted....robotic

equipment

> described in this piece has NOT been approved by FDA for this

> use.....equipment is very, very expensive ($1M)....and few

facilities

> have it. Oh, and U of Michigan is NOT the only hospital using

this

> robot. It may be the only PUBLIC hospital -- but there are

federal

> hospitals with the equipment as well.

>