 Brainerd community members were able to act like a surgeon and get behind the controls of robotic surgery. Sarah Winkelman takes us to see the tool that has had a major impact on surgery in the Brainerd lakes. These are our hands and our instruments and this is our eyes. A new set of hands and eyes for surgeons comes in the form of the Da Vinci robot. It looks daunting but it actually facilitates dissection and precise movements and surgery within the abdomen and pelvis. Giving surgeons new options when performing minimally invasive surgeries. As a urologist we use it to perform partial removal and whole removal of kidneys. The bladder surgery or bladder removal and perhaps most commonly prostate removal for prostate cancer. Now unlike a traditional robot the surgeons are over here using the controllers. Meanwhile the instruments are actually working on the patient over here. One arm is used for a camera and the other three can be used for instruments and they can be interchanged depending on what procedure is going to be performed. No matter the type of operation many of the patients are off to a quicker recovery. They have less pain post-operatively in cases where patients are working, they're getting back to work more quickly. So it's really been great to see the progression that's happened with the new system. Dr. Dunnick uses the robot once or twice a week while in the operating room in Brainerd. It allows us to do some operations through small incisions that maybe in the past we would have done through more traditional larger incisions. Today some students from St. Francis of the Lakes Catholic School were able to get behind the controls of robotic surgery. It felt like pinching scissors and picking up things with scissors. It was fun but it was also really hard. A fun test but one that may lead to some future surgeons. I know what I want to be when I grow up. Reporting in Brainerd Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. Ascension Health St. Joseph's Medical Center has been using the current model of the robot for the past year and a half.