The Benefits of Robotic Surgery: One Patient’s Story

As Penn's surgeons speak about the benefits of robotic-assisted surgery, there is one patient voice that speaks louder than theirs about the technology.

Janet Greisman, a woman in her 70s from the Baltimore area, had suffered for years with a small, non-cancerous tumor on her larynx. The tumor was discovered several years ago during surgery for thyroid cancer. At that time, she said she decided to “just live with it,” rather than have more surgery.

The tumor continued to grow over the next few years and it began to suffocate her to the point that she required oxygen to sleep at night. She was losing the ability to swallow and could barely eat. She was also losing her voice. This non-cancerous tumor was slowly killing her.

Mrs. Greisman spoke to a laryngeal surgeon at a major academic medical center near her home who recommended radical surgery. She was told the operation could take up to 10 hours, would require a tracheostomy (a “breathing hole” to be placed in her neck) and the surgeon would possibly cut her neck, her voicebox and she would be left unable to speak. She did not think she could go through such an extensive and risky procedure requiring a long recovery.

Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS)
Fortunately, Mrs. Greisman's local doctor had recently seen a presentation about transoral robotic surgery (TORS) and contacted the surgeons who developed the procedure, Drs. Bert O'Malley and Gregory Weinstein. Penn is the only medical center in the world with an approved study to perform this surgery and the two surgeons agreed the procedure could be performed easily with the new robotic technique.

Drs. O'Malley and Weinstein met with her, explained the procedure and set up the surgery. “I came into this with a lot of trepidation,” Mrs. Greisman said. “I had been dragging my feet but I knew it needed to be done.”

“This Has Been a Great Blessing for Me”
Mrs. Greisman went into surgery and emerged just 22 minutes later. According to Drs. O'Malley and Weinstein, it took 10 minutes to set up the robotic equipment and just 12 minutes to completely remove the tumor while sparing her vocal cords and thus speech. She went home two days after her surgery with her quality of life back.

“This has been a great blessing for me,” Mrs. Greisman said, “and I am so glad I had the advantage of this technology. I can't say enough good things about the care I received. My doctors were very skilled, attentive and kind. I appreciate the care I received from everyone at Penn.”

Drs. O'Malley and Weinstein say TORS is changing the way both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors of the head and neck are being treated. “TORS has a dramatic impact on our ability to completely remove tumors while preserving speech, swallowing, and other key quality of life issues,” they said.

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