The Queen's Medical Center today will perform its 1,000th operation using a da Vinci surgical robot, which results in shorter recovery times and fewer complications for patients.

Queen's two da Vinci robots — purchased in 2007 and 2008 — also help attract physicians to Hawai'i who are trained in robotics, Queen's officials said yesterday.

"Thanks to this medical movement toward robotic surgery, Hawai'i residents no longer have to go to the Mainland for many of the latest procedures," Art Ushijima, president of The Queen's Medical Center, said in a written statement.

Both robots have been used for prostatectomy and other urological surgeries, hysterectomy and other gynecologic surgeries, heart valve repair, thorascopic surgeries, gastrointestinal and esophageal surgeries and gastric bypass.

"With the da Vinci robot, surgeons are able to perform complex operations through dime-sized incisions," Dr. Whitney Limm, Queen's medical director of surgery, said in a statement.

"The robot essentially allows the surgeon to operate with 'tiny hands' in body cavities," Limm said. "Patients undergoing prostate, gynecological, gastric and cardiac robotic procedures lose less blood, have shorter length of stay in the hospital, and are able to return to work sooner when compared to the traditional approach."