For the first time in the world, a malignant tumor in the kidneys was successfully removed due to a surgical robot in an awake patient, during an operation performed on Wednesday at the Molinette Hospital in Turin (northern Italy), informed the Efe doctor responsible for the operation, Paolo Gontero.
The robot, known as Da Vinci Xi, had previously been used in operations with total anesthesia, but not in people awake due to the risk of movement, explained the director of the hospital’s urology area, who performed this pioneering operation.
The patient is a 62-year-old woman who “traveled to the country and to the most prestigious hospitals” in search of a solution for a “deep” malignant tumor of more than 5 centimeters in the kidneys, since she could not undergo surgery under total anesthesia due to a single lung due to previous cancer, Gontero explained, noting that the possibility of not waking up from sedation was very high.
“I told the patient that her case is extremely complex, because robotic surgery, the only technology that would allow us to remove a tumor of this size in a minimally invasive way and save the kidney, has never been used in a patient awake and therefore I could not assure him of the viability of the intervention “, said the specialist.
The use of the Da Vinci Xi robot was “mandatory”, according to the urologist, who did not think it was safe to use the “traditional outdoor” technique or laparoscopic surgery. -with a small chamber- “due to the risk of the tumor spreading, in the case of a mass of liquid content in a patient who risked moving”.
The operation led by Gontero lasted two hours of robotic time, required four operating arms of the robot and used “innovative three-dimensional reconstruction technologies”, explained the City of Health in Turin, a health complex where Molinette Hospital is located.
The patient, awake all the time, was able to continue the intervention and, excitedly, thanked the medical staff at its conclusion. “Thank you for giving me a second life,” he said, according to Gontero.