Dr. Rebecca Kowalski, M.D.

Robotic surgery is already a part of current healthcare, and will definitely be part of the future as well. Robotic surgery is NOT surgery performed by a robot without a surgeon present (i.e., the robot does not move on its own), but rather the use of a robotic platform that is controlled by a certified surgeon to perform an operation. The robotic platform allows the surgeon to use small incisions to perform operations in the chest, abdomen, or pelvis, as well as occasionally in other locations. There are advantages to the use of the robot in certain operations. Like any intervention, the use of the robot requires careful application by trained individuals. The major benefit is giving an option of minimally invasive surgery where there otherwise might not be a good option.

Depending on what the complications are with the gallbladder, your wife should have the surgery either as soon as possible, or at the least during the second trimester. New guidelines about surgery during pregnancy have been released, and because of the high incidence of recurrent complications with gallstones and the risk to the baby as a result, the recommendations are now that the gallbladder should be removed as soon as it is symptomatic if it is infected (acute cholecystitis), or during the second trimester if things can be temporized until then (something along the lines of choledocholithiasis, which is gallstones in the common bile duct instead of in the gallbladder). After the second trimester, surgery becomes technically more challenging and less likely to be successfully completed laparoscopically (or minimally invasively).