WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital Offering DaVinci Robotic Surgeries | News, Sports, Jobs

(Photo provided)
Dr. Matthew Metz, second from left, director of General Surgery at WVU Medicine Reynolds Hospital, poses with his and the new Intuitive daVinci Xi Surgical System at Reynolds Memorial Hospital. From left are Erin Carr, surgical technician; Metz; Megan Armstrong, surgical technician; Jayme Garrison, registered nurse IV; and Megan Thomas, surgical technician.

GLEN DALE – General surgeries such as gallbladder removal, hernias, bowel obstructions and more can now be performed via the new Intuitive daVinci Xi Surgical System at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital.

Drs. Matthew Metz and Rami Abraham, both general surgeons, performed the hospital’s first five surgeries with the daVinci last week.

Metz, who is director of General Surgery at Reynolds, said after receiving extensive training on the system and then conducting surgeries, the daVinci has exceeded his expectations.

“It’s an enhanced platform for traditional laparoscopic surgery,” he said. “A robotic surgery is where we have an arm that is attached to the patient and a physician console where we actually do the operation.

“At that console there are multiple benefits to the daVinci robot. We’re actually looking in 3-D versus the standard 2-D approach for traditional laparoscopic surgery. The visualization is much better. And you get higher magnification with that so we can actually magnify stuff up to 10 times.

“Obviously we can see a lot better, a lot of smaller anatomy that we traditionally wouldn’t see with the standard laparoscopic approach. To be honest, it probably decreases a lot of potential complications for patients. We can see blood vessels better. Smaller blood vessels that we can control and stop bleeding during the surgery that can cause potential postoperative discomfort and problems with infection and stuff like that.”

Metz said the first daVinci cases he performed at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital last Wednesday included two hernias and a gallbladder. Abraham performed a hernia surgery and bowel obstruction surgery on Friday.

“It lets us control the instruments a lot more, kind of like we’re just using our hands, versus the traditional laparoscopic instruments that are pretty stiff and straight and don’t maneuver very well,” Metz said.

Metz said during his career he has conducted thousands of traditional laparoscopic and open surgeries. He described the daVinci training as “pretty intense.” In addition to watching live surgeries being conducted with the daVinci, Metz said he went through hundreds of training modules during a two-month period before performing surgical modules and then finally performing live cases overseen by a proctor.

“It’s still us operating on you, we just have these tools that are significantly enhanced,” he said. “The three cases we did this Wednesday, I talked to all the patients and they’ve had very minimal post-operative pain, not taking any continual pain medication. They’re ambulating and walking around.”

Tony Martinelli, president of WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, said the hospital is “proud of the strides we’ve made inpatient safety, satisfaction, and overall outcomes in the last several years.”

“The daVinci robotics systems will only help us continue to deliver on our promise of bringing the highest quality services to the people of the Ohio Valley,” he added.

Metz, who lives in Glen Dale with his family, was born in Parkersburg and moved to St. Clairsville when he was 5 years old. He graduated from The Linsly School. He went on to Notre Dame to receive his undergraduate degree and then attended West Virginia University where he received his medical degree. He did his medical training in Charleston. He lived in South Carolina for 16 years before moving back to the Ohio Valley six years ago.

“I love being back home. I like taking care of the people here. There are a lot of good people here in the valley,” he said. “I feel much more appreciated here and the work that we do here is helping people from where I came from.”