7 Healthcast: Robotic myomectomy surgery

Baby pictures sit on the mantle at Sophia and David Watson's Boston home. But just a year ago, things were very different.

"I had met my husband and we were trying to have a baby, and we couldn't," said Sophia Watson.

Doctor's found a fibroid tumor was obstructing Sophia's uterus.

"Well I learned I had the fibroid through a routine exam. They did an MRI, they said, ‘This needs to come out.'" said Sophia Watson.

Her husband did some quick research and found a revolutionary new robotic method of tumor removal being done at Brigham and Women's Hospital called robotic myomectomy.

"A myomectomy is when fibroid tumors are removed from the uterus," said Dr. Serene Srouji, Brigham & Women's Hospital. "With a robotic myomectomy, we approach it generally like a laproscopy, so a laproscopy is the same type of surgery where you can do the myomectomy but through small incisions."

The robot gives doctors a 3D view of the tumor and acts as the hands of the surgeon.

"The surgeon can operate with the movements that he or she is used to performing in an open surgery," said Dr. Antonio Gargiulo, Brigham & Women's Hospital.

They are able to then break up the tumor and remove it through a keyhole size incision in the abdomen.

"We can do it with the advantages of a minimally invasive approach and quicker recovery with less scar tissue and less blood," said Srouji.

That was good news for Sophia.

"The recovery was great. Within a week and a half of surgery, I actually had to remind myself that I'd had major surgery," said Sophia Watson.

And soon she was able to fulfill her dream of a family.

"We received a green light to try conceiving about five and a half months after the surgery and it worked the first time we tried, and now we have a beautiful daughter," said Sophia Watson.

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