Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center announces that Dr. Tin Tran, M.D., general surgeon and bariatric surgeon, has completed his 500th procedure using the daVinci Surgical System. A celebration to observe that milestone was held today in the Surgical Services Department.
Dr. Tran, who is an independent contractor at Ephraim McDowell Bariatric Center, began using the daVinci system on September 5, 2019. He offers a wide range of procedures with the system, including gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, lap band revision, skin revisions following weight loss, hiatal hernia and ventral hernia.
“I love performing robotic surgery,” Tran said. “I started performing robotic surgery several years ago. Currently, about 80% of my cases are bariatrics … gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, revisions, hiatal hernia and ventral hernia, all performed robotically.”
He added, “Robotic surgery provides benefits to both the patient and surgeon. The patient has less pain and an ‘invisible’ scar, which the surgeon has better visualization, enhanced articulation and improvement in manipulation of tissue. Using the robotic model improves surgical time and surgeon efficiency. Our program is in the top 10% for surgeon time and effectiveness.”
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center has two daVinci Xi surgical systems that are used in the Surgical Services Department. The two systems are used for general surgery, bariatric, urology, thoracic, colorectal and foregut procedures. As of today, the systems have been used on nearly 4,000 cases.
The first daVinci surgical system at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center was installed on March 27, 2017 as a result of an investment by the Ephraim McDowell Health Care Foundation. The Foundation was also instrumental in the purchase of the second system.