The Department of Urology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has got a new robot, which will soon be deployed for minimally invasive surgery at the premier institute. According to sources, this robot may be functional by the end of January 2014.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi and many other private hospitals already have installed robots which are performing robotic surgery on patients. However, most of the robots used in the region can be handled by only one surgeon, but the robot which is being installed in PGI, is special.
Two surgeons can operate and perform surgery with great precision using this robot say experts. Dr AK Mandal, Head of Department Urology said, “The PGI is an educational institute and the main objective here is to train future doctors. Keeping this in view, the robot is very valuable because, besides a senior surgeon a Senior Resident can also assist him, which in turn will help the Senior Resident to hone up his surgical skills.”
Also robotic surgery is minimally invasive. Generally while operating on patients requiring surgery related urological problems, a very deep cut is required if the surgery is to be made around the belly. Introduction of the robot will only make it less cumbersome and surgery can be done by making small incisions. Recently, Dr Santosh Kumar of PGI got a surgical technique named after him for its safety and minimum incision required for operating on the kidney. This type of minimally invasive surgeries are safe as blood loss of the patient is very low and due to less recovery time and small incision this are also very cost effective.
It has always been an effort of the doctors of PGI to introduce surgical techniques which will be very cost-effective and at the same time safe and will involve minimum recovery time. The introduction of the robot for performing surgeries will provide a boost to such efforts Dr Mandal said that this robot will be used to perform prostrate surgery, kidney nephrectomy and other surgeries. The introduction of the robot will help cut the duration, of involvement of a surgeon, in performing a surgery.