St. Zdislava Hospital

The St. Zdislava Hospital is located in a beautiful landscape in the middle of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (Vysočina) and thus offers its patients the best conditions for a quiet recovery. The hospital has become a much sought-after medical facility. The quality of its care draws patients fr om all over the world. It is one of the few medical facilities in the Czech Republic to have the daVinci robotic system at its disposal and has thus become a specialized robotic surgery center - the Vysočina Robotic Surgery Centre. 

The hospital provides a wide spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures using the daVinci robotic system. Operations using the daVinci robot started as early as 2007 in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. Since then over 2000 operations have been performed by means of this robot. The number of operations performed grows every year and makes the Vysočina Robotic Surgery Centre one of the largest centres specialiszing in robotic surgery in Europe. 

The Vysočina Region Robotic Surgery Centre is a modern surgery center offering a wide spectrum of minimally invasive surgeries using the da Vinci robotic system made by Intuitive Surgical. The da Vinci Surgical System allows for minimally invasive surgical procedures executed with the utmost precision and accuracy. The system includes at 3D view inside the patient’s body and a console which translates the surgeon's hand movements into smaller more precise movements that are executed by wristed instruments that bend and rotate to a far greater degree than the human hand. As a result, the surgeon is completely in control of the robotic system at all times.

What is the aim of the robotic da Vinci surgeries?

Classic surgical techniques often require far bigger tools and don’t allow for the same amount of gentle precision as the robot's more accurate incisions and movements. The advantages of robotic surgery are minimal blood loss, gentler handling of tissue, minimal scarring, short hospital stay, and less time in surgery. This system has resulted in improved surgical accuracy and ability while minimizing side effects of surgical procedures. This surgical system allows doctors a wider range of motion and better angling to provide better results than is possible with a human hand or laparoscopic tools.

What kind of surgeries can be carried out with the da Vinci robot?

We are frequently asked whether gall bladder, hernia or appendix surgeries could also be performed with the surgical system. Because the Da Vinci Surgical system substantially increases surgery costs we do not use it on surgeries that are done effectively with other, cheaper, methods. Robotic surgeries are only performed in situations wh ere open or laparoscopic surgical methods have not shown ideal results.

Our facility specializes in robotic surgeries carried out with the da Vinci system in the following areas:

1. Urology – radical prostate surgeries, partial kidney resections, plastic surgery of renal pelvis and nephrectomies.

2. Belly surgeries – stomach resections and resections of the intestines and rectum. We are also preparing for liver resections.

3. Vessel surgery – abdominal aorta reconstructions, pelvis reconstructions.

We are going to gradually include more surgeries into our repertoire in hopes of serving more patients with conditions that are difficult to treat.

How long does a patient have to stay in hospital after a da Vinci surgery?

Robotic surgeries are minimally invasive procedures that cause less damage to the surrounding tissue than more traditional procedures. Usually, patients suffer very little blood loss and there is very minimal scarring (5 scars of about 1 cm). Typically, these scars heal quickly and without any complications. This lowers postoperative pain which is typical of procedures which leave 30 cm or larger scars. These sensitive surgical methods shorten the overall recovery period which allows patients to return to their lives faster. The da Vinci robot is used for complex surgeries that cannot be performed as safely and effectively through common laparoscopic methods.