Taking robotic surgery to the masses

Healthy people are a priority of any country. With 78 percent of the country having to pay for basic healthcare facilities, we have a long way to go to provide national healthcare accessibility and affordability to its people. A major burden of the treatment of diseases lies in surgery, which has constantly been evolving – from open to laparoscopic and then robotic surgery in its current form as the commonly adapted innovation by surgeons worldwide.

Surgeons, over a period of time, started preferring laparoscopic surgeries compared to traditional means as it required a smaller incision and less blood loss, amongnst other benefits to the patient and the operating surgeon. The advent of robotic surgery (robotic-assisted surgery or RAS) systems like DaVinci is another rapid advancement in minimally invasive surgery. RAS means operating on patients through small holes rather than making big incisions. The biggest advantage of robotic surgery is to give the surgeon unparalleled control in a minimally invasive environment. Robotic surgery offers higher precision, flexibility, and control when compared to the conventional laparoscopic surgery and offers much better anatomical clarity as compared to open surgery.

Robotic surgery is quite similar to laparoscopic surgery, which means they both use small incisions, a camera, and instruments. Robotic surgery will include EndoWrist instruments and surgeons’ console to operate the robot system. In laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon will be standing next to you, while in robotic surgery, the surgeon will stand next to a console. In robotic surgery, the robotic arm can turn 360 degrees and its way is more flexible than a human wrist or hand, while in the laparoscopic surgery, there is limited hand motion.

Many trained surgeons nowadays have been using robotic surgery in their surgical procedures to achieve accuracy and flexibility. Even a complex procedure, where internal organs, which are otherwise difficult to access or operate due to their anatomical position(s), can be worked on while offering better control to the operating surgeon.

With robotic surgery, minimally invasive surgery has become quite easy. The various benefits of minimally invasive surgery to patients include the following:

• Less pain during treatment;
• Smaller and less noticeable scars;
• Brings down post-surgical complications, such as infections, smaller incision, provides better cosmesis, and fewer chances of developing a hernia;
• It reduces blood loss and trauma;
• It allows a quicker recovery; and
• Recovery is faster; you do not have to stay in the hospital for quite long now.

Robotic surgery is gradually becoming the standard of care for surgeries related to oncology, gynecology, urology, gastroenterology, HPB, and liver, among others. The surgeon decides, based on the condition of the patient and the complexity of the disease, if the procedure is suitable for that patient.

The advances in technology have made recovery faster. The stay in the hospital has been significantly reduced from weeks to days or hours.

Robotic surgery has changed the experience of patients as they undergo surgery and over 3 million procedures have been performed across the world.

At Narayana Health, our mission and vision drive us to bridge the gap between accessibility and affordability in India, with the latest innovations in medical technology and high-quality medical care by expert and experienced clinicians and healthcare providers in the country.

In alignment with our mission and vision to provide the latest that medical and surgical technology has to offer, the addition of RAS at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital will provide the residents of NCR and neighboring states access to the latest RAS technology that can address their surgical care needs in oncology, gynecology, urology, gastroenterology, HPB, and liver, among others.