Kolkata: Robotic surgery proved useful in the gallbladder surgery of a 74-year-old patient with severe spinal deformity. Doctors at Fortis Hospital, Anandapur, said that this is the first documented robot-assisted gall bladder surgery in the country. While laparoscopy is the technique that doctors typically use for such surgeries, they had to employ the robot-assisted procedure due to the patient’s severe spinal curvature.
The patient was diagnosed with empyema of the gall bladder, a severe infection characterized by the accumulation of pus within the gall bladder. A laparoscopic surgery earlier in another city hospital was aborted midway as the laparoscopic camera could only capture images of the patient’s rib margin due to the hunchback. The spinal deformity caused the space between the ribcage and the waist to narrow, leading to an almost absent belly.
“This is where robot-assisted surgery came to the rescue. Robot-aided instruments offer a greater range of movement and enhanced 3D visualization. During the surgery, the pus-filled gall bladder was drained, the gallstones together with the diseased gall bladder were removed, and the infection was controlled at its source. The entire surgery was completed in approximately two hours,” said Udipta Ray, director, robotic, GI, and general surgery.
The patient experienced a painless recovery from the surgery and was discharged after the infection was brought under control.