Robotic Breakthrough: World’s First Full Liver Transplant Paves Way for Safer and Less Invasive Surgery

2023-07-19 14:08:25

Robot-assisted surgery has just experienced a new breakthrough: for the first time, a robot has transplanted a whole liver to a patient! A less invasive and safer technique that the team of American surgeons wishes to generalize.

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This is a world first: supervised by a team of experts in robot-assisted surgery from the Washington University School of Medicine, a robot performed a liver transplant on a patient. “It was a success,” said surgeon and team leader Adeel Khan in a communiqué published on July 12. The operation went smoothly, the new liver started working immediately and the patient recovered without any surgical complications.” All in just four weeks following which the recipient – suffering from hepatitis C that caused cirrhosis and cancer – was even thinking of resuming golf and swimming!

Less invasive and safer robot-assisted surgery

Classical liver transplantation — one of the most delicate and expensive operations carried out today — normally requires two to four weeks of hospitalization, and its effects are generally felt beyond six weeks. During the operation, the surgeon is installed right next to the patient and guides the robot’s gestures using joysticks, while a screen broadcasts live high-definition images allowing operation with great accuracy.

The incisions are much smaller, resulting in less pain and risk, faster recovery, and less frequent post-operative complications. The pioneering team has been in existence for five years and has made it its mission to generalize robot-assisted surgery throughout the United States.

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