The following is the first of a two-part series explaining the benefits of The Women's Center of Bluffton Hospital. With work underway toward the Center, the Icon posed the question to the hosital: How will the Women’s Center benefit patients?

Here are some answers:

Robotic Surgery
Once the doors are officially opened, The Women’s Center of Bluffton Hospital will offer robotic surgery for patients needing gynecological surgery.

The physicians and staff bring years of experience in women’s health to the Bluffton community.
 
The benefits of robotic surgery are many and include less blood loss, smaller incisions, less pain and faster recovery time than traditional open surgery. Blood loss is often less than the amount of a melted ice cube.

The incisions are equivalent in size to a dime. Due to less tissue trauma at the incision sites, there is less pain, often enabling patients to take little or no pain medications after surgery.

Patients may have recovery as short as one week if they have jobs not requiring heavy lifting.
 
At The Women’s Center physicians will also perform laparoscopic surgery for the following conditions, but not limited to:
• Hysterectomy
• Uterine fibroids
• Pelvic pain
• Endometriosis
• Pelvic organ prolapse

Robotic surgery provides patients a minimally invasive surgery option when they may otherwise need to have a large incision requiring much longer recovery. Many women are otherwise forced to live with painful medical problems because they can’t afford to be off work.

Next topic covered in this series: Pevic panic clinic