VIJAYAWADA: Fifty-four-year-old Bala Tripura Sundari, a group-1 officer, awed her colleagues when she walked into her office six days after undergoing hysterectomy surgery. Though a patient requires to stay in the hospital for at least one-week post-surgery, that was not the case with her. Thanks to the robotic surgical system, which has brought a paradigm shift in healthcare services.
Manipal Hospital has become the first multi-speciality hospital in the State to introduce a cutting-edge robotic surgical system. The hospital is equipped with a state-of-the-art fourth-generation Da Vinci X Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS) and offers services in surgical oncology, urology, thoracic, general surgery and gynaecology. This has attracted patients from across the State to reach out to the hospital for their treatment.
The introduction of RAS services in a tier 2 city, such as Vijayawada, offers patients the advantage of receiving surgeries locally, thus, eliminating the need to travel to distant urban centres. Sriharsha, son of 77-year-old patient Anumolu Bipin Kumar, from Vijayawada, said,” My father who was suffering from stage 2 lung cancer underwent robotic surgery successfully at Manipal Hospital and was discharged within five days. We opted for robotic surgery as it is technically sensitive.”
It may be noted that RAS is an advanced level of laparoscopic surgery, which helps doctors to perform surgeries accurately with a 3D view of the surgical area. AI-based staplers are used during the operation without touching the other organs. This in turn induces less pain and helps in faster recovery of the patients. Though the cost of RAS is a bit on the higher side compared to traditional laparoscopic surgeries, the patients don’t have to stay for a longer period of time at the hospital post their surgery.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr Vennam Dharmendra Kumar, a surgical oncologist, said that patients get operated with superior precision, smaller incisions and less pain through robotic-assisted surgery. This procedure causes minimal blood loss, hence, leading to faster recovery. “The latest RAS system allows us to bridge the gap and make high-quality care accessible to people. It is a cost-saving procedure when post-operative care is considered.”