Associate Professor and Program Director of the UAB Colorectal Surgery Fellowship Jamie Cannon, M.D., and Assistant Professor Drew Gunnells, M.D., published “Robotic Surgery in Crohn’s Disease” in the Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery journal.

In their overview, Cannon and Gunnells discuss the growing number of Crohn’s patients treated via minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for their bowel resection. While a minimally invasive surgery can be done robotically or laparoscopically, the authors assert that a robotic MIS approach to Crohn’s resections offers several advantages.

Cannon and Gunnells note that the improved visualization, instrumentation, and dexterity offered by the robotic approach may allow surgeons to overcome many of the difficulties encountered with complex inflammatory bowel disease. This allows surgeons to offer more complex patients an MIS approach in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, and can facilitate completing the operation in a minimally invasive fashion.

Cannon and Gunnells then share their best practices and review their technique in performing robotic Crohn’s resections. In 2020, Cannon hit a career milestone of performing 1000 colorectal resections, which is more than any other female surgeon in the U.S.

“The robotic surgical approach for Crohn’s disease really does have extensive benefits for surgeons and patients,” said Cannon. “UAB has been leading the way in GI robotic surgery for many years, and we will continue to expand what we can do via a robotic approach.”