One of the biggest questions patients ask about choosing a robotic hysterectomy: How long is recovery time? This is because one of the major effects of hysterectomy procedures is several months of recovery. Because a hysterectomy is such a major operation, recovery requires two months or more of limited mobility, decreased sexual activity, major pain medication.
Most of this recovery time is required because the operation as traditionally performed involves a large incision on the lower part of abdomen. Therefore, there is major healing that needs to be done through the layers of skin, fat, and muscle that must be cut in order to reach the uterus and other organs. Because the incision is so large, the patient’s movement must be more restricted during recovery time in order to prevent tearing and worse scarring.
However, the new method of robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy, known as RALH, significantly decreases the size of the incision. This allows for several benefits compared to the traditional technique. First of all, there is less bleeding involved because there are usually only four tiny cuts made on the abdomen instead of one large one. This can limit complications during the actual operation. Second, the pain after the operation is decreased by a large margin because there is less tissue that needs to heal. Similarly, this leads to an overall shorter recovery time, with fewer pain medications and a faster return to physical activity.
The hospital stay is often much shorter with the robot-assisted surgery, and can be as short as one day. Traditional methods may require up to 5 days in the hospital, and that is without complications. This is important because infections can be easily acquired in hospitals. Reducing the time you spend in the hospital after a major surgery can make healing faster and more comfortable.
Since RALH has become more common as more and more doctors are trained in the technique, it may be a possible alternative to the traditional surgery. With robotic hysterectomy, how long the recovery time is, or rather, how short the recovery time is, can make choosing this method easy.