Jipmer crosses landmark of 50 robot-assisted surgeries in 6 months

Puducherry: Jawaharlal institute of postgraduate medical education and research (Jipmer) has quietly crossed a major landmark by successfully performing 50 robot-assisted minimal access surgeries in a span of just six months. The institute achieved the milestone when a team of doctors successfully performed robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (surgical removal of a part of the diseased kidney) on a patient suffering from renal cancer on Thursday.

The urology department of the institute tops the list for performing the highest number of robotic surgeries (24) followed by the departments of surgical oncology and surgical gastroenterology with 10 surgeries each and the department of obstetrics and gynaecology with six surgeries. Soon, other departments including paediatric surgery, cardiac thoracic and vascular surgery and ENT (eyes, nose and throat) and head and neck surgery will start performing robotic surgery, said Jipmer director S C Parija

He lauded the team of doctors comprising the head of anesthesiology Sandeep Mishra, assistant professor (anesthesiology) V K Mohan and head of urology R Manikandan, who successfully performed the landmark 50th robotic surgery and other surgeons who helped in achieving the rare feat of 50 surgeries in six months. “The achievement is due to the hard work of anesthesiologists, surgeons of different specialities, nurses and other staff members of the institute,” said Parija. The institute charges Rs 30,000 for patients in general ward and Rs 50,000 for patients in the special ward for performing a robotic surgery. “The user charges are much less when compared to corporate hospitals where this facility will be charged roughly between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh per procedure,” Parija said. The maiden robot-assisted minimal access surgery was performed in Jipmer in July last year. Jipmer had established a centre for multidisciplinary robot-assisted minimal access surgery at a cost of Rs 32.67 crore.