State-of-the-‘art’ surgery comes to uMhlanga
The clinical robotic surgical system, known as Da Vinci, is the first of its kind in the whole of KwaZulu-Natal.
MEDICAL history was made at the Netcare uMhlanga Hospital on Thursday as a radical prostatectomy was performed on a patient using a state-of-the-art robot, known as the Da Vinci.
The clinical robotic surgical system, which comprises five mechanical arms and a computer console, is the first of its kind in the whole of KwaZulu-Natal, said hospital manager, Marc van Heerden.
“In the past, patients were flying to Johannesburg and Cape Town for the technologically-advanced, minimally-invasive surgeries. There was a lot of demand here, which motivated us to secure the technology,” added Van Heerden.
Currently, the robot is used only within a single surgical discipline, urology – also known as genitourinary surgery. It is hoped that the robot will be used in other disciplines in the near future.
Two of the urologists based at the uMhlanga hospital, Dr Oz Alli and Dr Mike Nicholls, will be travelling to Istanbul on 19 April for their final assessment and certification to use the multi-million-Rand surgical technology.
Dr Alli explained that this new surgical system not only speeds up the recovery time of the patients, but also improves the surgeons’ precision.
“Traditional laparoscopic technology only enabled the surgeon to see in 2D vision and six times the magnification, however, the da Vinci gives us 3D vision and 10 times the magnification. The ergonomical design of the centre console also takes less strain on the surgeon’s body,” he explained.
Dr Marius Conradie performed the successful robotic laparoscopic surgery on Thursday to remove the patient’s cancerous prostate.
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