Stony Brook Medicine is building momentum with medical firsts and innovations in technology, offering the latest medical solutions for patients across Long Island and beyond.
LI’s first Fully Robotic-Assisted Whipple Procedure: More Precision, Less Scarring, Faster Recovery
More patients with complex tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are benefiting from the use of recent advances in minimally invasive surgery, including robotic-assisted surgery.
This September, Stony Brook’s Surgical Oncology team became the first on Long Island to perform a fully robotic Whipple surgery. The procedure was performed by two surgical oncologists, Joseph Kim, MD, and Georgios V. Georgakis, MD, PhD, who used the da Vinci® S HD™ Surgical System to operate on a patient with stage II pancreatic cancer. The Whipple procedure, named after surgeon Allen O. Whipple, MD, and also known as pancreatico-duodenectomy, is used to remove tumors located in the head of the pancreas, where the majority of pancreatic cancers occur.
Stony Brook First In New York Metro to Perform Commercially Available “Bionic Eye” Implant
Stony Brook Medicine is the first hospital on Long Island and across the New York metropolitan area to implant a new commercially available retinal device known as the “bionic eye” to provide artificial vision for patients with retinitis pigmentosa.
The first commercially available retinal implant surgery was performed in October by Khurram Chaudhary, MD, a retinal surgeon at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.
Reducing Stroke Risk for patients with Carotid Artery Disease
Patients with carotid artery disease have an increased risk of stroke. To help protect them from strokes, Stony Brook Medicine offers a safe, ground-breaking procedure called transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR). This minimally invasive procedure treats carotid artery disease and is clinically proven to protect against stroke both during and after the procedure. Stony Brook was the first on Long Island — and is still the only hospital in Suffolk County — to offer this revolutionary procedure.
How a Monitoring Device Helps Patients with Heart Failure
Heart failure means that the heart is not pumping blood as well as it should, so the body isn’t getting the oxygen and nutrients it needs. In the early stages, patients may not have any symptoms. But as heart function worsens, people can have shortness of breath (at rest or with activity) bloating, welling, weight gain and/or fatigue. If left untreated, the disease is lie-threatening with many patients requiring hospitalization to help get their symptoms under control.
Thomas Indence is one such patient whose heart failure had been steadily getting worse. When he was hospitalized in June 2017, Michelle Weisfelner Bloom, MD, Director, Outpatient Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center, discussed an advanced monitoring system, called Cardio MEMS™, with Mr. Indence to provide daily monitoring of his condition with the goal of preventing worsening symptoms.
State-of-the-Art Hybrid Operating Rooms Open at Stony Brook University Hospital
Stony Brook University Hospital has installed two fully-equipped hybrid operating rooms (ORs), to provide patients with minimally invasive surgical procedures that are shorter, safer and more convenient.
The hybrid ORs feature the most up-to-date, technologically sophisticated equipment. Called the Siemens Artis Pheno, it has the most cutting-edge imaging capabilities available today. Stony Brook is the first hospital in the Northeast — and the third hospital in the country — to use this type of imaging equipment.