Mercy Health doctor performs Mahoning Valley’s first robotic Whipple surgery
Dr. Frances McCarron is a hepatobiliary surgeon at Mercy Health who has worked in Boardman, Youngstown and Warren.
She works with patients in Mercy Health’s hepatobiliary clinic. She specializes in performing surgeries on patients who have tumors or diseases in their liver, pancreas, or bile ducts.
Dr. McCarron performed the Mahoning Valley’s first robotic Whipple surgery in November.
What is robotic Whipple surgery?
Dr. McCarron explained the robotic Whipple operation is minimally invasive and is a standard surgery for patients with pancreas cancer.
Dr. McCarron explained that Whipple surgery is traditionally done “through a big incision” in the abdomen.
Surgeons go through the incision, remove tumors, and repair damage to organs during open surgery.
The recovery and healing time from this invasive surgery can take a while.
Now, when any early-stage tumors are found in the pancreas, there’s a new technology to help doctors speed up the surgery for Valley patients: the robotic Whipple.
The doctors said the robotic Whipple procedure has proven less invasive, letting patients heal faster and leave the hospital sooner than the traditional procedure.
“The robotic Whipple basically doing the same complex operation, but minimally invasive, so through small incisions,” said Dr. McCarron. “It’s significant because patients have shown to be in the hospital for a shorter amount of time than patients who have a big open incision. They can recover faster; their pain is a bit less than with a big open incision.”
The robotic Whipple gives surgeons a high-definition 3D look into the body while operating.
It sounds high-tech, but the surgeons still control the equipment the whole time.
“We’re in total control, so it’s not like the robot does the operation,” said Dr. Tom Chirichella. “The robotic Whipple just allows you to have the seven degrees of freedom [or movement]. It allows you to see three-dimensionally like we see.”
According to the Moffitt Cancer Center, robotic technology “translates the surgeon’s hand movements into smaller, more precise” than is normally possible.
Dr. Chirichella started the liver-pancreas surgical program at Mercy Health Youngstown in 2016 using experience working in Allegheny County’s hospitals.
“We started doing liver resections, open and robotic, operating on patients and having good outcomes,” said Dr. Chirichella. “Same thing on the pancreas side, but the one thing I wasn’t doing was a robotic Whipple. But we were doing everything else all the bile duct work, and offering patients in this area [options] so they didn’t have to leave.”
Dr. Chirichella explained there is a higher cancer rate in the Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana county areas, but there are not many local treatment options.
“Now we’re able to afford patients that opportunity to stay here versus traveling an hour away. We’re able to offer the patients the same care that you would get if you were in Pittsburgh, or Cleveland or South Carolina.”
He said the program is expanding to meet the needs of patients in the area as the technologies arise.
“When Don Kline was running the hospital system in Youngstown before he got promoted up, that was his vision: to bring that type of cancer care here,” said Chirichella.
Why is this important for the Valley?
The doctors said this surgery being available to patients in the Mahoning Valley is “a big deal.”
“It’s something that was never offered before and previously, patients had to go to Cleveland or mostly Pittsburgh, to have this procedure done,” said Dr. McCarron. “It’s huge to get it here so that we can offer this to the patients in the Mahoning Valley, and in the future, we’re hoping that patients will be able to come in from other places to get this procedure done. But most of all, it’s helping the patients in the community because we see so many patients here that have pancreatic cancer, and other types of cancer, and to be able to provide them that is the biggest benefit.”
November is also Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
Learn more about symptoms and treatment for pancreatic cancer at Mercy Health.
CONNECT WITH US
WEB SITE ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com
DAILY NEWS EMAIL ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com/customer-service/newsletter-signup/
FACEBOOK ► https://www.facebook.com/mahoningmatters
TWITTER ► https://twitter.com/mahoningmatters
YOUTUBE ► https://www.youtube.com/@mahoningmatters2814
INSTAGRAM ► https://www.instagram.com/mahoningmatters
SUPPORT US ► https://givebutter.com/vNfzEW
