A hospital in Howrah has conducted robotic surgeries in the lungs and chests of three patients within a week.
Robotic surgeries have greater precision and the cut or hole made in the body for the surgery is smaller than what is made in a keyhole surgery, said a doctor.
The recovery is faster compared with keyhole surgeries.
“All three patients will be able to join work within two weeks, whereas patients undergoing keyhole surgeries take about two months to recover,” said Amitabha Chakrabarti, chief thoracic surgeon at Narayana Superspeciality Hospital in Howrah.
Among the three patients, one was a 37-year-old man, who underwent the surgery on May 30. He was discharged on Thursday. He had a tumour in the chest cavity, which was was removed.
The second person — a 56-year-old man from Bihar — had a cavity inside his lungs. The doctors removed the portion of the lungs that had the cavity through robotic surgery.
The third person — a woman in her 40s — had a balloon-like formation inside her chest, which was surgically removed. Chakrabarti said had the formation not been removed, it could have burst and led to death.
All the patients suffered pain in the chest and breathlessness. At times they vomited blood.
Chakrabarti said tremors are almost nil in robotic surgery. The hands of a doctor conducting the surgery may have tremors but a robot won’t have any.
“A doctor sits inside a console and instructs the robot, which performs the surgery. A human being may have tremors in hand, but the robot has no tremor. Besides, there is 3D vision in robotic surgery,” said Chakrabarti, who conducted the surgeries.
He said all the patients were released within two or three days of the procedure.
Chakrabarti said had the patients undergone a keyhole surgery, three 2cm holes would have had to be made.
In the robotic surgery, two or three holes of 1cm are enough. “As the area that is cut is smaller, the recovery is also faster,” he said.
R. Venkatesh, regional director, east and south, Narayana Health, which runs the Howrah hospital, said the hospital as well as the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences have fourth generation robotics surgery facilities.
“We are doing it across all specialities in both hospitals. We have done robotics surgeries for gynaeoncology, uro-oncology, gastrointestinal matters and thoracic vascular,” he said.
Arrested for posing as doctor at city hospital
A man was arrested from the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday for allegedly posing as a doctor of the facility on College Street in north Kolkata and trying to cheat a patient.
The accused has been identified as Sk Sanowar Hossain, 25, a resident of Howrah.
According to police, Hossain had allegedly promised a patient of medicines at a much cheaper rate than they are available in the retail market and had a demand a commission for it.
