KOCHI: It seems that robotic surgery is all set to make a deep impact on the health sector of the state. Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Kochi, has become the first healthcare facility in the Asia-Pacific region to use robotic technology for neurosurgery, successfully conducted four surgeries for treatment of epilepsy with the new generation robotic surgical technology - ROSA.
Dr Asok Pillai, professor, nuerosurgery, said it will assist a broad range of surgical interventions to treat Parkinson and Epilepsy treatments, brain tumours, hemorrhagic strokes and endoscopic brain surgery.
“The robot is comparable to a ‘GPS’ for the brain and can be used for guidance, precision and accuracy during a variety of cranial procedures. It requires surgical planning with preoperative imaging data, patient registration and precise positioning and handling of instrument,” he said.
To date, ROSA is one of the two robotic assistants approved for neurosurgical procedures and in routine clinical use in Europe, the United States and Canada.
Dr Prem Nair, Medical Director of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, pointed out that though robotics doesn’t replace a surgeon’s skill and cannot accomplish all neurosurgical tasks, it provides a precise, mathematically correct trajectory to the destination in the brain. “In that trajectory, it will guide the surgeon’s instruments whatever be the purpose. Besides providing this precision and accuracy, it allows the surgeons to focus on other aspects of the surgery,” he said.
The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences has already commissioned a da Vinci robotic technology for surgical solutions for gynec-oncology, urology and gastrointestinal cases.
“The field of robotic neurosurgery is still in its early stage of development and we have been given the task of developing several of these applications. Medtech specifically has developed a robot for spine surgery and we have been given the task of helping expanding the applications of robotics in spine surgery,” said Dr Nair.
Babu Menon, head marketing and Dr Sajesh K Menon, Head, Neurosurgery Department also attended.