You Can Now Get A Scar-Free Hysterectomy From a Robot

Most women who undergo hysterectomies are left with multi-inch incisions above the pubic hair line. But a new case report in the Journal of Minimal Access Surgery found that robots, using a three-dimensional view and precise “chopstick” arm movements, can perform the same surgery using only a single point of entry, thus leaving no scars. Technology!

“It’s like an extension of your own hand being inside the patient,” Dr. John R. Lue, Chief of the Medical College of Georgia Section of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgia Health Sciences University, who authored the report, said of the robots’ smooth moves. “You can see the anatomy much clearer. I can see each blood vessel streaming blood and where your nerves are. You can see the ureter much clearer.”

The only downside is that the robotic technique is trickier to learn; according to Science Daily, “physicians essentially work in reverse since the single point of entry requires the chopstick approach that leaves the right hand doing what the left typically would.” But if I could figure out how to play the right-handed guitar controller that comes with Guitar Hero even though I’m left-handed, I have faith that doctors can handle the challenge, especially since the single-incision robotics technique is also being used for prostate cancer and gallbladder disease surgeries, kidney transplants, and even to put a stitch in a woman’s cervix to prevent premature delivery. Robots: they’re the future.