Since 2018, when they started performing procedures in which surgeons are assisted by a robotic system, 1,000 such procedures have been performed in the field of abdominal surgery and urology at the University of Ljubljana. The system has met and exceeded expectations, they say.
Robotic surgery is a technologically sophisticated tool that is fully controlled by the surgeon and enables the performance of major, complex surgical interventions through small incisions. Due to the ten times enlarged image, which is three-dimensional, the performance of the intervention is more accurate, according to the representatives of the University Clinical Center of Ljubljana (UKC LJ) said at a press conference.
No shaking hands
The instruments work similar to the hand movements of open surgery, but without hand tremors. The system is operated by the surgeon via a special console and instruments that are attached to the patient and mimics the experience of open surgery.
In UKC, they are currently using a robot to help each other in some operations abdominal surgeons and urologists. In the future, as expected, they will also approach the use gynecologists and thoracic surgeons, he explained to the media Simon Hawlin from the clinical department of urology of the surgical clinic.
They also participated in the press conference Andraž Konja and Jure Bizjak from the clinical department of urology of the surgical clinic and Primož Sever, Jan Grosek and Miha Petrič from the clinical department for abdominal surgery of the surgical clinic. Among other things, they presented operations with the help of a robot in their fields. The robot helps surgeons during operations belly, intestines, pancreas, stomachas well as in urological interventions on kidneys and in bladder.
In the prostate, precision is very important
With the robot, surgeons also help each other during removal prostatewhere accuracy is very important, since they try during the procedure, preserve the surrounding nerves that are responsible for the erection, as well as the part called sphincter, which is responsible for retaining urine. They achieve very good results in these operations, Hawlina emphasized.
The results that the surgeons of the University Hospital Ljubljana achieve in robot-assisted operations are comparable or even better than most others centers, and there are few complications. Their excellence has also been recognized by foreigners, who regularly invite them to congresses abroad, which did not happen before, he explained.
The advantage of UKC Ljubljana compared to some other European ones centers is, according to Hawlin, in the fact that surgeons from different specialties work together in one place. So some time ago, within one operation, they were the first in the world to simultaneously remove it rectal cancer and prostate cancer.
UKC will buy another robot
Urologists and abdominal surgeons in the central Slovenian medical institution are currently helping each other with the fifth generation of da Vinci robotic systems. In order to make the most of it, the robot system operates from Monday to Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and on Fridays it operates for eight hours.
At the same time, Hawlina announced that UKC LJ will definitely buy another robot, but it would make sense for other larger Slovenian hospitals to acquire robots, for example the Maribor UKC and the Ljubljana Oncology Institute.
Today, at an important turning point, the clinical departments for urology and abdominal surgery organized the 1st Ljubljana Symposium on Robotic Surgery.
Source: Rtvslo
