ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A local hospital is being recognized for it’s robotic surgery program. Dr. Mario Leyba, the chief of surgery at Lovelace Women’s Hospital on Montgomery, said their robotics program that started in 2012, is only improving.

“It’s gotten better these days. It can do things that my hand can’t do, and it can see things that my eyes can’t see. It can assist me doing a better surgery,” said Dr. Leyba.

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The equipment his team uses is called the da Vinci Xi system. Dr. Leyba said using robotic tech is safer, more efficient, and there’s less blood loss. With it, he can use the robots 4 arms, camera, and control system to work on patients. Dr. Leyba added, “I can do pretty much any abdominal surgery that I want from colon cancer, to gallbladder, to hernia repairs. A variety of surgeries can be done.”

According to Dr. Leyba, the hospital is one of the highest volume robotic centers for general surgery. Many around the country and world often join his team through tele-surgery to watch as they perform surgery with the robots help.

Other hospitals in the state have similar equipment, however the telepresence technology to broadcast live surgeries is given to only select programs. Recently, Dr. Leyba did a live surgery from the hospital to Nashville where more than 1,000 surgeons watched him perform a gallbladder surgery. As the technology grows, so does the expertise of the physicians.

“Even though technology is advancing, it still has the human touch. It still has the compassion of the surgeon. He or she is at the bed side. We’re still evaluating the patients. We are still doing all of the things we need to do. It’s just we are utilizing the technology to get a better outcome,” said Dr. Leyba.

Dr. Leyba said over the next month, there are one or two scheduled surgeries they will live stream to surgeons to help teach procedures.