Wichita’s reputation as a hotbed of robotic surgery has helped land it a valuable piece of training technology for general surgery residents.

Intuitive Surgical, a biotechnology company based in Sunnydale, California, recently donated a simulator to the KU School of Medicine-Wichita Department of Surgery that will help residents train for robotic surgery. Medical students and practicing surgeons can also use the simulator.

The simulator, called a SimNow 2, helps users build proficiency on da Vinci robotic surgical systems, which according to Intuitive is the most widely used robotic surgery system in the world. Intuitive makes the da Vinci systems. Intuitive also donated a console to the surgery department. The total value of the donation is about $1 million.

“It’s a partnership with them to get that kind of simulator into our accredited Surgery Skills Lab,” said Brett Grizzell, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery.

“They partnered with us because of the robust robotic surgery community in Wichita,” he added. “They have a lot of users of this company here.”

Asked how the donation came about, Grizzell said, “When I became (department) chair, I asked the company how they could partner with us to help us train the next generation of residents.”

Da Vinci systems are used to perform a wide variety of minimally invasive surgeries. KU Wichita’s skills lab is located inside Ascension Via Christi St. Francis. There, general surgery residents can do multiple rounds of simulations as part of their training. The skills lab is also used by medical students and practicing surgeons.

“It allows them hours of practice on their own time, in a protected environment,” Grizzell said, likening it to a basketball player “practicing thousands of shots before they have to play a game.”

Grizzell said Wichita surgeons began using robotics about 25 years ago, starting with “one of the nation’s biggest experiences” with urological surgery, then expanding to OB-GYN, general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.

“Everything used to be done open, which was much more invasive,” Grizzell said. “The last 20 years have shown a progression to less invasive surgery, and the robotic platform has taken the lead the last decade.”

Laparoscopic and robotic surgery are both minimally invasive procedures in which the surgeon uses a camera inserted into the patient’s body through a small incision. The robotic platform has been able to duplicate the human wrist, allowing for greater dexterity and tissue manipulation. Robotic surgery generally results in patients experiencing less pain, fewer complications and shorter recovery periods compared to traditional surgery.

Robotic surgery requires practitioners to learn how to manipulate instruments remotely. On a simulator, they train on such skills as camera control, needle control and driving, tissue manipulation, retraction, and knot tying. Keeping instruments in view at all times, preventing instrument collisions and properly handling cautery-enabled instruments are a few principles they must keep in mind. The simulator gives them feedback in real time, for instance indicating when a surgeon’s instrument would have injured a tissue.

Most major hospitals and surgery centers in Wichita use da Vinci systems, Grizzell said, “so that’s the platform (surgeons) prefer to operate on. And we’re excited about this learning opportunity for medical student and resident education.”

Grizzell called the donation “a great partnership between industry and education.”

Above, left: Brooke Gardner, D.O., second-year OB-GYN resident at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, trains on the SimNow 2 robotic surgery simulator.