Hospitals are making a beeline for the robot that performs surgery with precision, involving lesser pain and faster recovery. Santosh Andhale gives an insight into this medical technology of the future.
When 70-year-old Jagshi Jagani had to undergo a prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland) in August, he was scared but optimistic. The operation was being done by no ordinary surgeon but a robot.
He opted for robotic surgery because doctors told him the procedure was less painful.
He was admitted to the robotic surgery centre of Asian Heart Institute (AHI) at Bandra-Kurla Complex. The institute got the city’s first robotic facility for surgeries in August.
“I was admitted to the hospital for four days only. Moreover, there were no cuts during the surgery — only six holes,” said Jagani, who was back on his feet in a few days.
Come 2012, there will be many like Jagani who might opt for robotic surgery.
Robots play a major role in treating cancer of the kidney, bladder and prostate and doing reconstructive procedures in a minimally invasive manner. Hospitals can use robots for valve replacements and for extended bypass surgery of the heart. Robotic surgery can also be used in urology, gastrointestinal surgery and gynaecological procedures.
Asian Vatikutti centre, dedicated to robot-assisted surgeries, was launched by AHI on its hospital premises. A robot’s cost is around Rs15 crore.
The da Vinci Sir Robotic Surgical System with simulator being used by AHI is the latest, third generation robot and is the only one of its kind in the country.
“We have started with urological procedures and our team of experienced and senior urologists has been trained especially on the use of this technique. We will introduce robotic surgery in other specialities such as gynaecology, cancer, abdominal surgery and cardiac surgery in stages,” said Dr Vijay D’Silva, medical director of AHI.
The hospital will be using robotic assistance for cardiac and non-cardiac cases.
Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital might follow suit.
“Lot of complex surgeries can be done with robots. Apart from the advantages of minimal invasion, the other advantages of robotic surgery are precision, miniaturisation, smaller incisions, less pain and faster healing of surgery wounds. The hospital stay is also shorter,” said Dr Ram Narain, CEO of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital at Andheri.
He said the hospital was evaluating the possibility of introducing robotic surgery. “We are working on cost. Obviously, treatment costs are higher than the traditional laparoscopic surgery,” Narain said.
Robotic surgery costs Rs1.5 lakh — triple the cost of laparoscopic surgery.
“Robotic surgery is expensive but we are subsidising the cost at the initial stage. Every new technique is costlier and once the demand increases, the cost comes down,” said D’Silva.
AHI started robotic surgery in August and apart from cardiac surgery, other non-cardiac medical procedures are also being performed with help of robots. Since September, AHI has performed 26 robot-assisted surgeries.
Although the hi-tech surgery was greeted with scepticism by doctors and patients, medical experts say it is a part of future medical treatment. City hospitals will make use of the advanced technology and are planning to buy robots next year. Hinduja hospital is one among them.
“This is the future of medical treatment and we are planning to launch a robot-assisted surgery facility in our hospital next year,” said Pramod Lele, CEO of Hinduja hospital.
Routine surgery cannot be performed through robots, he said. Despite its limited scope and high cost, hospitals plan to introduce robotic surgery.
Another medical facility coming up in the city, Global Hospital at Parel is also planning to buy robots for medical procedures.
“We are already in discussion with robot makers to buy the machine,” said a senior member of the hospital’s managing board on condition of anonymity.
Dr V Srinivas, an uro-oncology surgeon, is part of the AHI team that performs robot-assisted prostatectomies.
“Though we have been practising traditional open urologic surgeries for three decades, robotic surgery has its distinct advantages. Doctors and patients are slowly accepting the new technology,” said Dr Srinivas, who has performed more than 1,000 complicated urological cancer robotic surgeries across the country.
“The size of the prostate is a matter of concern while doing prostatectomy, which is an invasive surgery. But we have performed robotic surgeries on prostate size from 20gm to100gm. The blood loss was minimal and the patients were discharged in three days. No patient was given blood transfusion,” he added.
Doctors are sure that most complicated surgeries in the future would be robot-assisted.
It will save the patients post-operation trauma because of smaller incisions. And surgeons will have assistants who are focused, obedient and never tired.
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