Abel Castro – da Vinci Single-Site Gallbladder Surgery Success Story

Single-Site Scores a Hole in One

One minimally invasive procedure with one small incision ended Abel Castro’s gallbladder pain

Single-Site gallbladder removal
scored a hole in one for Abel Castro.

“Ask how I knew my procedure was on a Wednesday,” says Abel Castro, a 66-year-old Plano resident, as he sits across from his wife sipping coffee.

“I knew it was a Wednesday because Wednesdays are golf days with my crew, and Dr. White didn’t let me play that day,” he continues with a sly grin, while his wife lovingly rolls her eyes.

In the bunker

Last August, Castro noticed that he had developed an intense tightening feeling in his lower chest that became increasingly worse. His primary care physician referred him to Gary White, MD, general surgeon at Methodist Richardson Medical Center.

“We determined, fairly quickly, that his gallbladder needed to be removed,” Dr. White says. “It wasn’t an emergency procedure, but waiting around for the pain to get worse could have caused some serious health issues.”

Dr. White suggested that the best removal route would be with the da Vinci® Surgical System’s Single-Site™ technique. This robotic technology requires only one 1½-inch incision through the navel and delivers a dramatically shorter recovery with almost no scarring.

Under par

After hearing the benefits of Single-Site, Castro made the swift decision to go ahead with the procedure. Even though the avid golfer missed his round on that early Wednesday morning, he was back to chipping balls the very next week and playing a full 18 holes the week after that.

“When I got out of surgery, I had no real pain, just some soreness,” Castro says. “And now I’m back to the things I love and amazed at how quickly I got there.”

Don’t miss your tee time

Minimally invasive surgery with the robotic da Vinci Surgical System could spell relief for you.

From the winter 2013 edition of Shine magazine.