Dr. Subhashini Ayloo, section chief of Brown Surgical Associates’ Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery Division, is taking robotic surgery to the next level.
She recently performed Rhode Island’s first robot-assisted Whipple on a patient who had advanced cancer in the small intestine. The cancer was abutting the patient’s pancreas and close to some major blood vessels.
“Once you hear that you’re diagnosed with cancer, trust me, all you want to do is get it out of your body,” said 62-year-old Valerie Young, who was delivered a diagnosis this time last year.
Dr. Ayloo had a solution – first shrink the tumor with months of chemotherapy, then remove remaining cancer with robotic arms through tiny incisions.
“Whenever you can avoid making a big incision or big cut on the abdomen—number one, your recuperation is far better because you’re going to have less pain,” Dr. Ayloo told NBC 10’s Barbara Morse. “It is good for the patient in terms of the outcome. For example, the case that we’re discussing, she had very little blood loss from the operation.”
