For the first time in the world, a malignant kidney tumor has been successfully removed thanks to a surgical robot in an awake patient, during an intervention carried out on Wednesday at the Molinette hospital in Turin, Northern Italy, the doctor Efe in charge informed . of the operation, Paolo Gontero.
The robot, known as Da Vinci Xi, had previously been used in total anesthesia surgeries, but not on people who were awake because of the risk of movement, explained the hospital’s director of urology room, who performed this groundbreaking intervention.
The patient is a 62-year-old woman who has “traveled the country and the most prestigious hospitals” in search of a solution to a “deep” malignant tumor of more than 5 centimeters in the kidney, as she was unable to undergo surgery. under total anesthesia for having only one lung due to previous cancer, Gontero explained, noting that the possibility that he would not wake up from sedation was very high.
“I told the patient that her case was extremely complex, as robotic surgery, the only technology that allowed us to remove a tumor of this size in a minimally invasive way and save the kidney, had never been used on an awake patient, and so I could does not assure him of the viability of the intervention, “said the specialist.
The use of the Da Vinci Xi robot was “mandatory,” said the urologist, who did not believe it was safe to use the “traditional open air” technique or laparoscopic surgery. -with a small camera- “because of the risk of spreading the tumor, in the case of a mass of liquid contents in a patient at risk of movement”.
The operation, led by Gontero, took two hours of robot time, required four robot operating arms, and utilized “innovative technologies for three-dimensional reconstruction,” said the health city of Turin, a health complex in which it is located. the Molinette Hospital.
The patient, who was always awake, was able to continue the procedure and excitedly thanked the medical staff for ending it. “Thank you for giving me a second life,” he said, according to Gontero.