Sharad Ghamande sat at a console in the corner of the operating room at Doctors Hospital, his head pressed into a groove in the center. His right arm moved and, about 10 feet away, there was a twitch in one of three two-foot-long metal arms hovering over the patient on the table. On a screen above the arms, a tiny pair of scissors cut through a thin strip of tissue.

Dr. Ghamande, a gynecologic oncologist in Augusta, was using a da Vinci surgical robot to extract lymph nodes from the pelvis of cervical cancer patient Lizzie Hagans, 56, of Sandersville.

It is just the beginning of the robot invasion in Augusta -- University Hospital is expecting to get its da Vinci robotic system in June and Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics is expecting one in the fall. Proponents say the systems allow for less blood loss and quicker recovery times from smaller incisions and less damage than even laparoscopic surgery; the downside might be an inherent learning curve with the new devices and potentially longer times in the operating room.

There is almost a surreal aspect to using the robots, said Dr. Ghamande, who splits his time between MCG and Augusta Oncology Associates.

"If you had told me when I was in medical school that one day I would be using a robot to do an operation, I would have put it as science fiction," he said.

The surgeon sits at the console looking at a screen with a true three-dimensional view from two cameras mounted on one of the extensions. The surgeon controls the arms through joystick-like hand controls. The instruments mounted on the end of the arms go in through tiny incisions. The system can provide greater precision through scaling: in its ultrafine mode, the controls compensate at five to 1, so that a surgeon moving the controls five inches would result in the instruments moving one inch inside the patient.

The magnification along with three-dimensional view blew away Allan Joseph, who was observing Dr. Ghamande.

"This is wonderful," he said. "You can really see it so well."

Dr. Ghamande was working around the aorta, the largest artery in the body, as well as several nerves and other blood vessels.

"He can really get in there comfortably," Dr. Joseph said. "He's making it look easy. It's not easy."

It has really taken off for prostate removal, which is very difficult to do with standard minimally invasive surgery because of where it is and its proximity to other organs, said James A. Brown, head of the subsection of urologic oncology at MCG. He has been pushing his health system to get one for five years and had a chance in 2004 to do a fellowship in robotic prostate removal with one of its pioneers in Detroit.

"I think it's the future and most urologists agree and many surgeons in other specialties also agree that this is arguably the future," Dr. Brown said. "We're able to do this complex surgery as well as it can be done through a big incision with less blood loss."

"It is a significant thing that Augusta will be able to offer this," said Benjamin Kay of Augusta Urology Associates, who was trained in robotic surgery during his residency. It has been estimated that 60-70 percent of prostate removals in the U.S. this year will be done robotically, Dr. Brown said.

The reason some are enthusiastic about it can be seen in Mrs. Hagans. Where a patient who had conventional surgery might spend two to three days in the hospital, she was able to get up and go home after her procedure, Dr. Ghamande said. That means he doesn't have to wait for her to heal as well before starting her radiation therapy, which can begin much sooner. And that's the bottom line, he said.

"Getting overall better patient care and perhaps better survival," Dr. Ghamande said.