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SAL II makes busy debut at Memorial

by jmaloni
Mon, Jul 11th 2016 11:20 pm

"SAL II," the new daVinci XI Surgical System at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, kept the surgery team on its toes during a memorable debut Monday.

Guided by the experienced hands of Chief of Surgery Venkat Kolli, M.D., F.A.C.S., the robot was used to perform three surgeries: two umbilical hernia repairs and a single incision gallbladder removal.

"SAL II's performance was everything we expected. Today's surgeries certainly confirmed that we made the right decision for our patients by upgrading our robotics program," Kolli said.

The daVinci XI Surgical System represents a major advance over the daVinci SI Surgical System that has been in use at Memorial since 2012. That system, which was known as SAL, afforded nearly 800 of Memorial's patients a minimally invasive alternative to open surgery that reduced post-surgical complications, pain and bleeding while speeding up recovery time.

SAL, which stands for "Save A Life," was named by then fifth-grader Gabriella Baratta in a countywide naming contest for schoolchildren.

The new da Vinci Xi System, dubbed SAL II, will be used across a wide spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures for complex diseases and conditions in gynecology, urology, thoracic and general surgery, Kolli noted.

Ten Memorial Medical Center surgeons currently perform robotic surgery and at least three more are scheduled to begin this summer, Memorial President and CEO Joseph A. Ruffolo said. This year they will perform more than 250 robotic surgeries.

Memorial's robotic surgery program is led by Chief of Robotic Surgery Donna Feldman, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. To learn more, call 716-278-4492 or visit http://NFMMC.org.

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