Allegheny General Hospital
Allegheny General Hospital is a large urban hospital located at 320 East North Ave. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Allegheny General Hospital, also commonly known locally by the acronym "AGH," was founded in 1885 in Pittsburgh's North Side, in the area formally known as Allegheny City. It is internationally known and has received many notable awards. It was the first hospital in the Pennsylvania to be designated as a Level 1 shock trauma center. It was also the first hospital in the northeastern United States to offer an aeromedical service.[1]
It is the flagship hospital of the West Penn Allegheny Health System, which is the chief competitor of Pittsburgh healthcare giant UPMC.
References
- ^ "About Us". Alleghemy General Hospital. Retrieved 2008-10-11. (this reference currently covers the entire article)
West Penn Allegheny Health System Leads Region in Robotic Surgery December 11, 2008 With the largest number of trained robotic surgery specialists in the region, West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) now offers the most comprehensive program of its kind in western Pennsylvania, affording patients a broad spectrum of robotic surgical procedures including hysterectomy for benign or malignant conditions, prostate surgery and pelvic organ prolapse repair.
Twelve physicians at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital (WPH) currently use the da Vinci Surgical System, a sophisticated robotic technology that enables surgeons to perform complex procedures using a minimally invasive approach.
WPAHS acquired the da Vinci System for both its AGH and WPH campuses in February. Since then, more than 200 such procedures have been performed at the two hospitals.
Originally developed by NASA for operating remotely on astronauts in space and used by the Department of Defense to operate on soldiers in the battlefield, da Vinci offers patients all the benefits of minimally invasive surgery, including less pain, less blood loss, a shorter hospital stay and faster return to normal daily activities.
West Penn Allegheny most often uses the da Vinci for prostatectomy surgery in the treatment of men with prostate cancer and for gynecological procedures such as hysterectomies. However, use of the system continues to grow, and WPAHS plans to expand its use to additional clinical areas such as cardiovascular surgery.
Physicians who use the da Vinci system at WPAHS include urologists Ralph Miller, MD; Jeffrey Cohen, MD; John Lyne, MD; Gina Rooker, MD; Arthur Thomas, MD and Kenneth Hu, MD; urogynecologist Michael Bonidie, MD; obstetrician/gynecologists Eugene Scioscia, MD and James Garver, MD, and gynecologic oncologists John Comerci, MD; Eileen Segreti, MD, and Fredric Price, MD.
The da Vinci System allows surgeons to see targeted anatomy in high magnification, brilliant color and a natural depth of field. The System's robotic instruments exceed the natural range of motion of the human hand and afford a fail-safe design that minimizes the possibility of human error.
Sitting at a console several feet away from the operating room table, the surgeon maneuvers da Vinci's four robotic arms stationed at the patient's side and views the surgical field through a high resolution endoscopic camera mounted on one of them.
By providing surgeons with superior visualization, dexterity and precision, the technology makes it possible to perform minimally invasive procedures involving complex tissue dissection or reconstruction.
Intuitive Surgical Inc. manufactures the da Vinci Surgical System. More information about the company is available at www.intuitivesurgical.com
External links
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