Guwahati hospital performs Eastern India’s first remote robotic gallbladder surgery
Using SSI Mantra, India’s homegrown robotic system, surgeon performed the operations remotely from Gurgaon
Image from the private hospital after robotic surgery (Photo: AT)
Guwahati, Sep 10: The first remote robotic gallbladder removal surgery in Eastern India was performed on two patients at a private hospital in Guwahati.
The operations were carried out on both patients using the “Made-in-India” SSI Mantra robotic system, with lead surgeon Prof Subhas Khanna Khanna controlling the robot from Gurgaon and performing the surgeries from nearly 1,950 km away on Tuesday.
Both patients are recovering well and are fit to be discharged within 24 hours, Khanna told the press on Wednesday.
"Convincing patients of something new and innovative is not easy. I am grateful to both my patients for the blind faith they placed in me as I was not physically present near them, but they trusted me and happily agreed to undergo the surgery,' Khanna said.
This facility will now help patients get the best treatments even in small cities through tele-connectivity, he added.
Remote robotic surgery is not entirely new to the world, with the first such procedure — the famous “Lindbergh Operation” — carried out in 2001 when a surgeon in New York removed a patient's gallbladder in France's Strasbourg, Khanna said.
Since then, progress has been slow due to high costs and connectivity challenges, but with advances in robotics, secure networks, and high-speed data transmission, there has been a resurgence of global interest, he pointed out.
Remarkably, such procedures have not yet been attempted in many leading corporate hospitals across India, making the achievement particularly significant, Khanna said.
For Assam and the Northeast, this step carries far-reaching implications, the surgeon said.
“It promises to deliver specialist surgical care to patients without the need for long and difficult travel, offers hope for soldiers and citizens living in remote border areas, and enables real-time collaboration between experts across different geographies,” he added.
Earlier on April 13, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while inaugurating the Northeast’s first onco-robotic surgery system at the State Cancer Institute (SCI), Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), had hinted at a future phase where remote surgeries could be performed remotely.
"At a future phase remote surgeries could be performed through high-speed internet, allowing doctors from major cities like Delhi, or even overseas, to operate on patients in Assam," he had said.
PTI