ASHLAND, Ky. — Da Vinci is changing the lives of people in the community and the world. Not to be confused with the famous artist, this Da Vinci is ushering in a new way of performing operations.

Although other area hospitals offer it as well, King’s Daughters Medical Center brought the Da Vinci Surgical System to patients in 2007. Since then, many KDMC surgeons have used the system to perform minimally invasive surgeries.

Thursday shoppers at the Ashland Town Center got to see the system up close and personal.

“This is the next extension of laparoscopic surgery,” Bill Palmer, sales manager, said. “It allows the surgeons to do much more complex surgeries.”

There are three components to the system, the surgeon console, the patient cart and the video tower. During laparoscopic surgeries, someone had to shoot the footage on a video camera while the surgeon was performing the operation; now the surgeon has complete control of the built in camera.

“With laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon would stand over the patient to perform the procedure,” Palmer said. “With Da Vinci, the surgeon has his head in the console. He has two master controls, anything the surgeon can do with his hands, he can do with the robot.”

The system uses three arms that are inserted into the patient’s body through small punctures of the skin. With the third arm, the surgeon can easily retract anything, pull things out of the way. It is as if the surgeon has three arms to perform the surgery. The system also filters out tremors or any unwanted movement by the surgeon, Palmer said.

A major benefit of the system is the recovery time for the patients. For a hysterectomy, there is a lot of recovery time because the surgeon is going through the stomach area. Instead of a wide surgical incision, using Da Vinci, the surgeons can perform the surgery using four small ports. The recovery time for a traditional hysterectomy was about six to eight weeks. With this system, it’s usually two weeks, Tom Deering, KDMC spokesman, said.

“It’s more efficient, the recovery time is better. Less scarring, less bleeding, less pain for the patient,” Palmer said. “If you can produce the same results as a open surgery, in an equivalent time with the recovery time being significantly less for the patient, then the patient doesn’t have to deal with the healing of an open incision.”

Another benefit to using Da Vinci is the 3D element that the doctor has the ability to use. They can’t feel the tissue or skin but with the third dimension, they now have depth perception. The extra dimension is beneficial when the surgeon is operating around the complex anatomy, Palmer said.

“Laparoscopic surgery has been around for 30 years and has only eliminated one open procedure,” Palmer said. “This system has allowed surgeons to tackle prostate cancer, all types of female cancer, cervical cancers and kidney cancer.”

Most surgeons are trained in open surgery. This system mirrors what they have been trained on, it’s just minimally invasive. The surgery time is about the same as it would be otherwise. The system is more for the patient and the recovery, Palmer said.

All six obstetrician gynecologist (OB/GYNs) practicing at KDMC are certified in Da Vinci surgery. In addition, other surgeons are certified in Da Vinci surgery include Urologist William Boykin, M.D., cardiothoracic surgeon Eric Bronstein, M.D., and general surgeon Eric Smith, D.O.