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Robot assisted surgery to reverse tubal ligation
By: Benita Zahn
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33 Year old Kristen Presutti is about to undo something she thought was a done deal. Six years ago, after the birth of her third child, she had her fallopian tubes surgically closed to prevent further pregnancies - a tubal ligation. But that was before she was divorced and fell in love again -- this time with Jerome Kramer. They'll be married this October and want to have a child together.
Her research led her from her home near Rochester to Schenectady and Dr. Nicholas Montalto, director of robotic surgery at Ellis Medicine. He tells me he's the only doctor between Buffalo and New York City doing the reversal with the assistance of robotic surgical technology.
"So the nice thing about robot assisted tubal reversal is that it allows you to have excellent 3 dimensional view as well as really zooms into the fallopian tube which is tiny, almost like putting blood vessels back together again."
And the wrists on the robotic arms, which Dr. Montalto controls through a console, flex further than human hands - giving him even greater control over the delicate procedure.
"Recovery time from robotic surgery, which is like laperascopic surgery through tiny incisions would normally be in the order of 1-2 weeks versus from an open c-section type incision which can take 4 to 6 weeks."
Dr. Montalto recommends women wait 6 weeks after surgery to begin trying to conceive. His first patient, back in March, is now 7 weeks pregnant.
