NEW YORK -- About one million women undergo a tubal ligation every year, ending the chance of having a baby.
Some 10% will change their mind and many of them will have surgery to reverse the procedure.
A surgeon in New York is among a handful doing a newer, minimally invasive reversal procedure.
33-year-old Kristen Presutti is about to undo something she thought was a done deal. 6 years ago, after the birth of her third child, she had her fallopian tubes surgically closed to prevent further pregnancies - a tubal ligation.
But that was before she was divorced and fell in love again -- this time with Jerome Kramer. They'll be married this October and want to have a child together.
"Well, when we got together we started looking into it," says Presutti.
Her research led her from her home to Dr. Nicholas Montalto, Director of Robotic Surgery at Ellis Hospital. He says he's doing the reversal with the assistance of robotic surgical technology.
"So the nice thing about robot assisted tubal reversal is that it allows you to have excellent 3 dimensional view as well as really zooms into the fallopian tube which is tiny, almost like putting blood vessels back together again," says Dr. Montalto.
And the wrists on the robotic arms, which Dr. Montalto controls through a console, flex further than human hands - giving him even greater control over the delicate procedure.
"Recovery time from robotic surgery, which is like laproscopic surgery through tiny incisions would normally be in the order of 1-2 weeks versus from an open c-section type incision," says Dr. Montalto.
Recovery from open surgery can take up to 6 weeks and Dr. Montalto says infection risks are less without that open wound.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
