Steven Fukuchi, MD, Reaches 1,000 Robotic Surgeries

Chester County Hospital (CCH) welcomed robotic-assisted surgery to its range of offerings in 2011 with urologic and gynecologic surgeons performing multiport robotic surgeries. Two years later, the program expanded into general surgery, with Steven Fukuchi, MD, being one of the first general surgeons at the hospital to be credentialed for standard robotic procedures and in the use of single-site technology.

Now, less than a decade later, Fukuchi is celebrating a major professional milestone: He has performed 1,000 robotic-assisted surgeries. This achievement reflects the operations where he was the primary surgeon on the case.

Fukuchi, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a physician, chose general surgery as his specialty in medical school because of the sense of completion and immediate gratification he felt at the end of an operation. He gained his initial interest in robotic-assisted surgery while supporting his urology and gynecology colleagues. He quickly realized that the technology offered valuable improvements over standard techniques and applications for his own patients and has been an advocate for the innovation ever since.

“The beauty of this technology is that you can see and feel everything, gaining an overall sense of the abdomen as if it were fully open, all through a small incision,” Fukuchi said. “It reduces hospital stays, gets patients back to their everyday lives more rapidly, and there is a drastic reduction in the need for narcotics to manage pain. I’m fortunate to be able to offer this method of treatment to my patients and to have a great team by my side to assist in the procedures.”

Prior to undergoing surgery, many will ask if the “robot” is going to do the surgery, to which Fukuchi explains that there is not a button he can push that says “remove gallbladder” or “take out sigmoid colon.” He goes on to assure his patients that he is still manipulating the robotic arms and making intraoperative decisions about what to do next in the operation.

Performing 1,000 robotic-assisted surgeries as a general surgeon is no easy feat; Fukuchi is now the third general surgeon in all of Penn Medicine, and one of only five in the entire Delaware Valley region, who have achieved this milestone.

James Kozub, PA-C MHA, the Robotics Coordinator at CCH, shared that “having the general surgeons embrace robotic surgery so early in the process has had a huge impact on the program.” The benefit of general surgeons using robotics technology allows the hospital to offer minimally invasive complex hernia repairs, gallbladder surgeries, spleen removals and stomach operations. Most notably, though, are the number of colon resections done robotically at CCH. Fukuchi led the charge of using the robot to perform this procedure in 2013.

In addition to Fukuchi’s personal milestone, the Robotics Program at Chester County Hospital hit 5,000 robotic-assisted cases in April 2021 — just 10 years after its inception.