We’re constantly coming across jaw – dropping medical Marvels from Robo nurses to AI which can out diagnose experts. We’ve seen the future of medicine evolving before our eyes it’s fair to say medicine has come long way with new technology. Well, the medical industry has taken a huge step in administering robotic surgeries and here’s what you need to know about it.

Dr. Chinna Babu Sunkavalli a renowned Robotic Surgical oncologist at Apollo Cancer Institute at jubilee hills, Hyderabad. Has done more than a thousands of robotic surgeries in the last one decade. He has done more than three – hundreds of surgeries in his career, which includes Gynaecology, GI oncology. So, the experience as far as the robotic surgeries is quite vast and  big numbers.

 While having interaction with Dr. Chinna Babu said, A Robotic surgery is basically a computer in the operating theatre. So basically, it’s a digital surgery.  We have introduced the technology come into the operating room. The  advantages of robotic surgery are number one, it is minimally invasive, so there is no big cut, it’s a keyhole surgery. A  less pain,  early recovery and the less complications post-surgery in terms of the lung infection or in terms of the wound infections or in terms of the surgical site or the other infections. Apart from that, the outcomes wise patient, has less pain and less blood loss, less infections.

The recovery rate is muchfaster and early discharge is possible and they can resume their normal work very fast compared to the regular traditional open surgery.

Robotic surgery takes a little bit more time than the regular surgery. For example, if you do radical hysterectomy open method on an average it takes about three to four hours and robotic may take one or more. The greater number of cases that one Institute performs the time difference is not much in his experience.

Expert 

What kind of Robotic system does Indian hospital use?

The Robotic system that is available today is Da Vinci robot and this is the only widely available robot that we have right now and we have various models in it. So far we were using the SI model, but first time in South India we got the Xi  Da vinci,  the most advanced robotic system. The Xi model is the one which we are using right now.

In coming days, do you think that a complete transition of technology will be take place?

I certainly envision a future where digital surgery is going to be the order of the day, especially now with this pandemic times. I foresee tele surgery to be a reality where in a surgeon is in one city and other patient is in some other city. And with the advent of 5g and with the advent of a better infrastructure for telecommunications, it is a reality and is going to be implemented very soon.

 In India, so far what is the success rate of robotic surgery till now?

Robotic surgery is got wonderful outcomes especially from the patient’s point of view, the outcomes are much more superior I can say compared to the traditional surgery.  Most of the centres, where the regular oncological surgeries are performed with outcomes are much better and though we do not have a concise or one kind of a report of entire countries robotic programs, but if you look at the overall presentations in our various national platforms, where we discuss definitely there is a superior outcome for the patient.

While doing the robotic surgery during some time when the robotic is not sensing the signal, so how do you react for that?

During the surgery, usually, we don’t have any technical stacks, but should there be a technical stack, usually it will be resolved immediately because every system is connected online. And there is no immediate rectification is done. In case we have a problem where in one arm is not working, that then we need to work with the available arm side to complete the procedure. So far, with the last 10 years, we have hardly had such issues and you know, technical glitches, especially if you’re doing a tele surgery, I think that’s where this problem can occur very in the signal transmission issue, where the patient is somewhere else and the surgeon is some other city and you’re out doing the surgery. So that’s where I think during the transmission of the signals that could have an issue, but within the operating room surgeon being there close, this should not be a major problem.

We are evolving towards pain free, minimally invasive surgery. And I would say digital surgery is already here. The it’s not in the long future, but I would say the future is right here. We were able to provide the best outcomes for the patient through digital surgery. Robotic surgery is the future. And the future is right here.