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Intuitive Robot Performs More Precise, Less Invasive Surgeries

MIAMI (CBSMiami) --An intuitive robot being used at a South Florida hospital is helping surgeons perform a more precise, less invasive surgery.

Before undergoing robotic surgery last year for prostate cancer, Reverend Walter Richardson said he didn't want to know about the intricacies of the machine that would help save his life.

"I just didn't wanna know," said Richardson.

Friday he got the chance to find out.

"It's amazing. It's amazing what we could do now that we couldn't do 20 years ago," said Rev. Richardson.

Jackson Health Systems showed off the da Vinci Surgical System.

"This instrument has a wrist so it can turn 540 degrees and it functions almost like a human wrist. They're very fine instruments, so you can do very delicate operations. You can do surgery with just tiny incisions in the patients abdomen so they have much less pain, the recovery is quicker, less complications, said Colo-rectal Surgeon Dr. Henry Lujan.

There are four different arms that you can use, but don't forget about the surgeon behind all of that steel.

"It's as good as the man behind the machine," said Dr. Sanjay Razdan, Director of Jackson Urology Center.

Richardson said thanks to his doctors skills and a few helping hands, he was walking the day after his operation.

"No way would the outcome have been the same had I done open surgery. I would have had more scaring. The down time would have been much more," said Richardson. 

Over the past 10 years Jackson Health System has performed more than 1,700 robotic surgeries.

Jackson's surgical team doesn't only treat patients, but also teaches other physicians from across the country how to use the robot.

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