There is only one best surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (uterine prolapse, cystocele, rectocele, enterocele). Most urogynecologists and gynecologists would agree that that surgery is the sacrocolpopexy. The best, state-of the-art minimally invasive approach to performing the sacrocolpopexy, is with the da Viinci Robotic System. The da Vinci System is a surgeon-controlled robot that controls laparoscopic instruments to effect the repair while minimizing tissue trauma. The end result is that the best operation there is can now be done with less pain, quicker recovery, lower blood loss, less risk of infection, reduced scarring, and improved cosmesis with smaller incisions than ever before.
Dr. Vardy has been credentialled in Robotics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 2007. In the fall of 2009 Englewood Hospital purchased the best of the da Vinci systems, the Da Vinci Si, for $1.7 million. In November, 2009, Dr. Vardy became the first surgeon credentialed by the Robotics Committee at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and he immediately established a robotic urogynecology program. While the robotic sacrocolpopexy is not for everyone with prolapse, when it is indicated it offers the surgery with the best long term success rate and the lowest risk of causing pain during sex. After the first year of the program we have seen dramtically reduced blood loss, more rapid recovery and reduced infection. Patients have typically spent one night in the hospital and have needed much less pain medications to control their post-operative pain - even on the day of surgery.
The major disadvantage of the robotic surgery is the length of the surgery which has ranged from 2.5 to 5 hours (including a supracervical hysterectomy and usually an incontinence procedure as well). As the techniques have improved, the most recent cases have all been completed in under 3 hours. At the national and international urogynecology meetings over the past 3 years there has been an increasing focus on the robotic gold standard in prolapse surgery.
Video explanation of da Vinci (click here)