Surgeons at St. Peter’s Health Partners committed to Excellence in Patient Care:

At St. Peter’s Health Partners, we are committed to providing our surgical patients with access to expertly trained surgeons — using the most advanced surgical techniques and technology — to provide each patient, in our care, with the very best surgical outcome.

For the past several decades, our surgeons across all St. Peter’s acute care hospitals have been implementing minimally invasive surgical techniques that have benefited our patients and have earned St. Peter’s recognition in this clinical space. In fact, the minimally invasive surgeons at St. Peter’s Hospital were recognized in July of 2018 as one of only 50 hospitals in the United States to exceed 10,000 robotic surgical procedures since the inception of the program.

Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques:

Endoscopic Surgery, including laparoscopic surgery, thoracoscopic surgery and “keyhole” surgery are amongst the most common approaches. These minimally invasive procedures utilize an endoscope to reach internal organs through very small incisions.

Endoscopic surgery involves the surgeon inserting a thin, flexible tube with a video camera on the end of it through a small incision or through a natural orifice like the mouth or the nostrils. The surgical scope has a channel that utilizes tiny surgical instruments, which the surgeon uses while viewing the organs on a computer monitor.

This minimally invasive surgical technique allows the surgeon to see inside the patient’s body and operate through a much smaller incision than would otherwise be required of traditional “open surgery.”

Significant advancements in endoscopic surgery have been achieved by surgeons at St. Peter’s Health Partners.

Endoluminal Surgery, involves a surgical expertise and technology that has now been extended to gastric endoluminal surgery. Laboratory and clinical investigations have been initiated for various applications of this new form of surgery. Endoluminal gastric wall excision surgery is the most widely utilized and includes the removal of superficial gastric malignancies, benign gastric wall leiomyomas, and gastric polyps. Clinical experience has increased, and the initial results have been very positive.

At St. Peter’s Hospital, Dr. Bora Gumustop and Dr. Joseph Choma have mastered several minimally invasive procedures aimed at addressing Digestive Disease. These procedures include the Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM), the Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) and the Endoscopic Full-Thickness Resection (EFTR). The advantage of PEOM, ESD, and EFTR over other treatment options, is centered around the minimally invasive nature of endoscopic procedures which have shorter recovery times, and are less disruptive to the lives of our patients.

Right here in our community, St. Peter’s Hospital performs more advanced minimally invasive endoscopy procedures than any hospital in New York State. Moreover, St. Peter’s has been rated 36th in the nation for advanced, minimally invasive, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery. Robotic Assisted Surgery, as technology advances, many surgical procedures that have been traditionally performed using the “open” technique, are being phased out and replaced by surgeries that represent the shortest and least invasive surgical procedures that science will allow. This adaptation in surgical methodology is brought about, in part, by the integration of robotics.

Robots in the operating room provide our talented surgeons with guidance for extreme precision in surgery and the most favorable outcome for our patients. At St. Peter’s Health Partners the use of the daVinci ® Surgical System, provides St. Peter’s surgeons with greater control and vision during surgical procedures, allowing our physicians to perform safe, less traumatic, and precise surgical procedures. During robotic-assisted surgery, surgeons operate from a console equipped with two master controllers that maneuver four robotic arms to perform surgeries. By viewing a high-definition 3-D image of a surgical patient’s organs on the console, our surgeons are able to see the surgical site and their procedure more clearly than ever before. Computer software, driving the robotic surgical system takes the place of actual hand movements and can, thus, make movements extremely precise.

Benefits of minimally invasive surgery:

• smaller incisions, fewer incisions, or no incision

• less painful procedure

• lower risk to infection

• shortened hospital stay

• quicker recovery time

• less scar tissue

• reduced or eliminated blood loss

Today, surgical platforms are highly advanced and are being used anywhere from spine to endovascular procedures. Shortened recovery time and limited pain after surgery are just a few of the patient benefits seen with minimally invasive robotic assisted surgery. Continued advancement in the field has led to more precise and effective surgeries with improved surgical outcomes that significantly influences healthcare’s focus on lowering patient length of stay, eliminating re-admissions and decreasing risk to infection.

St. Peter’s Health Partners Surgeons leading the way:

Today more than 20 surgeons, at St. Peter’s Health Partners, are expertly trained in robotic assisted surgical techniques across the spectrum of surgical services. Five of the leading robotic surgeons in the Capital Region practice at St. Peter’s Hospital and, collectively, have surpassed 10,000 robotic surgeries since the inception of this program in 2004. To adequately fund the investment necessary to implement the region’s first Minimally Invasive Center of Excellence here at St. Peter’s Health Partners, the St. Peter’s Hospital Foundation will make a commitment of resources to bring this Center to fruition. Specifically, the Foundation will plan and execute a Major Gifts Campaign effort that will seek charitable contributions of $2.5 million.

Funds raised will be used to purchase minimally invasive surgical equipment and necessary start-up costs associated with this important initiative. Pledge commitments can be customized over a period of time to best fit the charitable budgets of our cherished donors. A small portion of each gift will be utilized to offset the cost to raise such funds. The success of this Major Gifts Campaign will depend upon the generous philanthropic support of our investor level donors who will make this significant advancement possible.

Please know, your unwavering support will leave an indelible mark on our future of St. Peter’s Health Partners.