Summerville Woman Becomes First In Area To Undergo Robotic Gastric Sleeve

Pictured: Ms. Ellis (on left) at her first visit to Coastal Carolina Bariatric and Surgical Center three weeks post-operatively.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C.–Summerville’s Jarinthia Ellis recently became the area’s first patient to undergo a gastric sleeve procedure using the da Vinci robot.

The gastric sleeve, or sleeve gastrectomy, is a weight loss surgery that involves removal of a portion of the stomach, leaving only a thin vertical sleeve. Surgeon Michael Michel, MD, from Coastal Carolina Bariatric and Surgical Center at Summerville Medical Center, performed the surgery.

Surgeons at Summerville Medical Center have performed nearly 600 weight loss surgeries since opening the program 2011. The hospital was the 4^th in the nation to receive accreditation from the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, which measures quality and standards of care for bariatric programs.

“Robotic surgery is the next evolution in minimally invasive surgery and offers many benefits to patients,” explained Dr. Michel. “Surgeons have better visibility inside the patient, and much more precise manipulation of organs. We are often able to enter the body through a few, sometimes only one, small incision. Robotic arms have a better range of motion, so there is less trauma to bodily tissue. As a result, the procedure can be safer for the patient, and they may feel less pain and have a shorter recovery time.”

Ellis agrees. “Two weeks after surgery I was back in school and walking to all of my classes- without being out of breath or feeling pain at my incisions. My incision sites stopped hurting about a week after surgery.”

At her three-week visit Ellis was down 40 pounds from her first appointment in February of this year. “I feel amazing,” Ellis comments. “I have so much more energy!”

For the past six years, surgeons at Trident Health have performed more robotic surgeries than any other hospital in the region. This year, more than 1,000 robotic surgeries will be performed at Trident and Summerville Medical Centers.

da Vinci robotic surgery has become the surgery of choice for hysterectomy, gallbladder, inguinal hernia, and prostate removal surgery. Trident Health includes Trident Medical Center, Summerville Medical Center, Moncks Corner Medical Center, and Centre Pointe Emergency.