A hysterectomy is surgery to remove your uterus (partial hysterectomy) or both your uterus and your cervix (total hysterectomy).
If you need a hysterectomy, you may be eligible for robotic (robot-assisted) surgery. During robotic surgery, doctor performs the hysterectomy with instruments that are passed through small abdominal incisions. The magnified, 3-D view makes possible great precision, flexibility and control.
The normal cervix has two main types of cells: squamous or flat cells, that protect the outside of the cervix and glandular cells, that are mostly inside the cervix, that make the fluid and mucus commonly seen during ovulation.
When you have a minimally invasive hysterectomy, you're likely to have less pain and lose less blood than is typical with open abdominal surgery. You'll probably be able to resume normal daily activities more quickly than you could after open surgery.
Generally, recovery lasts 6 weeks after surgery especially for the inside incisions to adequately heal but, the recovery period is typically much shorter with a robotic surgery over traditional surgical techniques. Some individuals have returned to work in as little as 2-3 weeks following surgery. Although patients will feel better, they still need to remember that complications (like hernias) can still occur during this time. Healing time is dependent on the person and everyone is different.
Total time for a simple robotic hysterectomy is usually an average of an hour and a half.
Every patient has a different perception of pain and response to pain, however, most patients require far less use of narcotic pain medication with the robotic procedure. This is one of the major benefits to this procedure over traditional surgical techniques.
The average length of stay for the robotic hysterectomy procedure is one overnight hospital stay. Patients are typically discharged the following day after their scheduled procedure is completed as long as no complications are involved.
