A few days ago, two successful operations have been performed with the help of robots in Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) Lahore.
Dr. Nadeem Bin Nusrat, chairman of the urology department at PKLI, told Independent Urdu that both the surgeries were successful and more such operations will be done after Eid.
According to him: ‘One surgery was performed on a cancerous kidney and one operation we performed in which the patient’s kidneys were not functioning. In both the operations, one diseased kidney of the patients was removed as their other kidney was healthy.
He said that the two patients were told before the operation that their surgery would be done by a robot, which is a new treatment method in the hospital, and that they would not be charged for it and that they would go home the next day. They were very happy.
He said that during these operations, two surgeons of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) Dr. Rehan Mohsin and Dr. Riaz were also included in his team.
He was invited because he is already doing these surgeries at SIUT.
Dr. Nadeem bin Nusrat said that if these operations were done normally, the surgery would take two to two and a half hours and the patients would stay in the hospital for three to five days.
“With the help of the robot, we performed one surgery in one hour and five minutes, while the second surgery was completed in 55 minutes and the patients went home the next day.”
According to Dr. Nadeem: ‘In a robot-assisted operation, we are seeing the situation inside the human body with a camera whose vision is high-definition, high-resolution, ten times magnified and three-dimensional.
“The human hand cannot go into every part of the body, but the robotic instrument is five millimeters, which is a finer instrument than a human’s little finger. It goes inside the body and works with it, which has the advantage of minimal time and It is done without wasting blood.’
He further informed that in this surgery no cut is made in the human body but only a five mm hole is made in the body and the operation is done through it. There are no stitches, but the skin is closed when you pull the device out of the body.
Continuing, he said: ‘When there is no cut anywhere in the body, there is no possibility of any kind of infection in the patient, nor does he need to stay in the hospital and the patient recovers quickly.’
According to Dr. Nadeem, one of the advantages of robotic surgery is that since the patient goes home the next day after the surgery, which saves the patient from staying in the hospital for a long time, the patient recovers quickly. Goes back to his work.
He said: ‘The most interesting thing is that surgeons can do this surgery in their drawing room wearing their three-piece suit, with a coffee in hand, they don’t need to wash their hands before the operation. , wear gloves or scrubs. You can do this operation by sitting anywhere through the console of the robot.’
Dr Nadeem says: ‘Just like playing a game on PlayStation, you have a joystick or a TV remote in your hand to change the channel, just like a surgeon has a remote in his hand that has all the controls. are by which we are controlling the robot and the robot is operating on the patient.
He said that in robotic surgery there is no need to sterilize the instruments but its instruments can be used only once and then they are destroyed and a new kit is used for a new operation. The price is 16 hundred dollars.
‘The robot is completely covered and its arms are kept covered at all times. Sterilized gloves are put on his arms before the operation. ‘
Dr. Nadeem bin Nusrat said: ‘All kinds of surgery can be done with a robot because it is a tool and it is like a hand with which you can do everything. can do.’
History of robotic surgery
Dr. Nadeem bin Nusrat said that the first robotic surgery was performed in France in 1997.
The first robot in Pakistan came in 2011 but it flopped, after that the second one also failed while the third robot was operated by SIUT which is still running in Karachi while a robotic unit in a private facility in Lahore. Running in the hospital.
According to him, Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute has taken over this unit now. “We were supposed to inaugurate it in October 2022 but it got delayed due to the Punjab Pre-Care Regulatory Authority.”
He said that currently five robotic units are functioning in the country but PKLI is the first hospital in the public sector where this facility has been provided.
(Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute)
Why is it important to have robotic units in the public sector?
In this regard, Dr. Nadeem said that the price of the robot alone is two eight million US dollars. The cost of a procedure ranges from five to five and a half lakh rupees, which is beyond the reach of a common man.
He said: ‘Our effort was to introduce this method of treatment in the public sector and every man would get the best surgeon, equipment and international style facility for which this method of treatment should be introduced in the public sector.’
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He said that if a patient does not have the status, then no matter how expensive the treatment is, all types of treatment are provided free of cost. At PKLI, we wanted robotic units to come and treat the common man.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed happiness over the launch of advanced robotic surgeries at PKLI.
Dr. Nadeem said that since PKLI was an initiative of the PML-N government to focus on the treatment of liver and kidney diseases which are very common in Pakistan, the then Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif took this initiative. .
PKLI had two people who were robotically trained. This is not the case anywhere else in Pakistan. There is one Dr. Nauman who is from UK and is a robotic surgeon and returned to Pakistan after 15 years in UK and the other is himself.
It was our demand in PKLI to provide things for robotic surgery to utilize our capabilities, after which permission was taken from PKLI in the annual budget, after which we Bought the robotic program and installed it here.