![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/robot2-450x206.png\")
<\/a>The new robot’s single port, left, through which all surgical instruments travel. At right, Dr. Jeff Houlton manipulates the instruments from a distant console. Photos by Randy Carnell, UW Medicine<\/p><\/div>\n
Higley\u2019s radical tonsillectomy entailed the removal of a margin of tissue beyond the visible tonsil and tumor. Houlton\u2019s incisions exposed cranial nerves and branches of the carotid artery. Working in tight quarters with such vital anatomy, Houlton and his head-and-neck colleagues in surgery, Brittany Barber and Neal Futran, welcome the improvement in maneuverability.<\/p>\n
Head and neck cancers represent only 3% of all oncology cases in United States. But case numbers are rising, Houlton said, with increased incidence of throat cancer involving human papillomavirus (HPV), as was the case with Higley, 68.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these cancers are HPV-mediated rather than smoking- and drinking-related,\u201d Houlton said. \u201cWe call it an epidemic because it\u2019s a viral cancer that\u2019s gone up significantly since about the year 2000. In terms of HPV, cancer of the oropharynx (mouth, throat and tongue) is actually more common than cervical cancer now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higley\u2019s cancer came to light last fall after a yearly physical with his Olympia-based physician.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no trouble swallowing, no pain,\u201d Higley recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t notice anything until my doctor said, \u2018Hey, this looks like something we should check out.\u2019 \u201d His referral to UW Medicine led to a biopsy in mid-December, and on Dec. 23, he learned that he had cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad they found it early and so is my wife,\u201d Higley said. \u201cIf I could\u2019ve had surgery the next day, it would\u2019ve been OK with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the robotic part of the surgery, Houlton incised Higley\u2019s neck and removed more than a dozen lymph nodes to be biopsied for cancer cells. Higley hopes they\u2019ll concur with the pre-surgery PET scan that indicated his cancer was constrained to the tonsil.<\/p>\n
Patient outcomes data suggests Higley\u2019s prognosis is encouraging: 90-95% of patients who undergo surgery for this cancer survive five years or more.<\/p>\n
Higley is already swallowing liquids and soft foods, but he\u2019ll manage sore throat for about a month, Houlton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source: newsroom.uw.edu Author: Brian Donohue You know how great it feels when someone makes a pie or cake just for you? University of Washington Medicine head and neck surgeons have been feeling that kind of love lately, and on Feb. 5 they shared the first slice, so to speak, with patient Steven Higley. The cake in this story is actually a da Vinci robotic-assist system built especially for head and neck procedures. It is easier to maneuver than the robotic device they\u2019ve used for the past decade, which was designed for operations to the chest and abdomen. Higley underwent surgery to have a cancerous tonsil and part of his throat removed. Sitting at a console a few feet from the patient, Dr. Jeff Houlton manipulated the miniature surgical tools emanating from the robot\u2019s single port, positioned just outside Higley\u2019s open mouth. It was UW Medicine\u2019s first trans-oral surgery with the new tool. \u201cIf you think about laparoscopic surgery in the belly area, robotics provides the advantage of multiple mechanical arms approaching from different angles,\u201d Houlton said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a challenge to have three robotic arms that all need to go through a patient\u2019s mouth. With this machine, the three arms are designed to come through one garden hose-like entry port and then articulate out from there. \u201cPretty interesting, though, that in the past 10 years we built a nationally recognized practice for robotic head and neck surgery with a device designed for a different part of the body,\u201d he added, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3921,445,206,2314,534,1621,105,6109],"class_list":["post-20588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oral_cancer_news","tag-da-vinci","tag-drinking","tag-human-papillomavirus","tag-pet-scan","tag-robot","tag-robotic","tag-smoking","tag-trans-oral-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20593,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20588\/revisions\/20593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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