Baptist’s Dr. Anthony Gonzalez Performs 5,000th Robotic Surgery

Anthony Gonzalez, MD, chief of surgery at Baptist Hospital and medical director of bariatric surgery at Baptist Health, recently reached an important medical milestone.

In May, after nearly 15 years as an expert in robotic surgery, Dr. Gonzalez completed his 5,000th robotics case. He is now the No. 2 active general surgeon in robotics in the United States and the top robotic surgeon in the Southeast.

“From an early age I wanted to be a surgeon and to help people. I always had very good eye-hand coordination in sports and was good at video games. Early in my career I specialized in laparoscopy, which has much to do with eye-hand coordination because you’re working bedside looking at a TV screen…much like a video game. Robotic surgery requires the same skills,” Dr. Gonzalez explained.

After undergraduate and medical school at the University of Miami, Dr. Gonzalez trained at Jackson Memorial Hospital in general surgery and minimally invasive laparoscopic bariatric surgery. He subsequently joined Baptist Health where, on Aug. 27, 2009, he pioneered the use of robotic surgery in bariatric cases.

Initially, the robotic technology was used to revise and repair obsolete bariatric surgery in a minimally invasive fashion that was previously not possible. Dr. Gonzalez led the team of surgeons who described their robotic bariatric surgery techniques to others in textbooks and scientific publications.

Subsequently, in 2014, Dr. Gonzalez published an article revolutionizing how robotic surgery could be used to repair abdominal hernias that laparoscopic surgery had failed to resolve.

“We realized that there were limitations to what laparoscopy can achieve with regarding to closing the hole in a hernia,” he said. “Using robotic surgery with the da Vinci robot, we changed the trajectory of how hernias are being repaired. Today, it’s the standard for hernias to be repaired robotically.”

This was Dr. Gonzalez’s second application of robotic technology to improve patient care.

In 2015, he was the principal investigator demonstrating how scarless surgery could be performed with da Vinci robotics. In a published article, 465 gallbladder removals were reported using the novel scarless technique through the belly button. Most recently, da Vinci single port robotics has been used to help others with oral cancer, where all of the robotics instruments are used through a single one-inch opening.

“Dr. Gonzalez has always pursued innovation and excellence in surgery, which has allowed him to be a pioneer in robotics,” said gynecologic oncologist John Diaz, MD, director of robotic surgery and chair of the Robotics and Innovations in Surgery subcommittee at Baptist Health.

Dr. Gonzalez is the founding program director of the Baptist Health Bariatric Surgery Fellowship and accepts one promising surgeon each year into the year-long accredited fellowship to learn minimally invasive robotic and bariatric surgery.

“We’ve had surgeons from all over the country participate. Once they finish the training and return home, they can help patients in their communities,” he said.

In addition, he trains surgeons from around the U.S. and the world where they spend a day with him to learn and practice robotic surgery. After they complete that training and are certified by Dr. Gonzalez, they return to their hospitals to be proctored and observed by an experienced surgeon before they can operate independently.

“I can only do so much surgery,” Dr. Gonzalez said. “But through my training of young surgeons during the yearlong fellowship or the shorter hands-on sessions for more experienced surgeons, I am able to teach and empower doctors to return to their communities and help those in need with the latest robotic techniques.”

For more information, please visit the Center for Robotic Surgery at Baptist Health South Miami Hospital.

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