Surgeons at the Henry Ford Hospital have just announced their use of a three-dimensional robotic surgical technique they used to successfully remove a cancerous tumor from a 50 years old patient.  The technique, SIRS nephrectomy, allows the removal of all or part of a damaged kidney with much less trauma than conventional surgical techniques do.

Cancer targets the kidneys of nearly 55,000 people each year.  Removal of the cancerous tumor(s) traditionally requires open surgery through an incision that is about a foot long.  Surgeons must cut through muscle tissue to reach the damaged kidney and they must sometimes remove a rib to access the kidney, too.  Recovery can be quite painful and long, with a week’s stay in the hospital common and extensive scarring almost guaranteed.

When using SIRS, or Single Incision Robotic Surgery, a single incision about three inches long is made near the navel, allowing access to the kidney without damage to muscle or bone tissue.  Recovery time is shorter, risk of complications is reduced, and scarring is minimal.

In addition to cancer patients, the SIRS nephrectomy technique can be used to remove kidneys damaged by blockage, congenital abnormalities, or stones.

Craig Rogers, MD, the hospital’s director of robotic renal surgery, performed the nephrectomy in less than three hours, directing every move of the robotic arm from the control panel of a da Vinci Surgical System.  The da Vinci system has been used thousands of times to remove diseased prostates.

The Henry Ford Hospital prides itself as a leading provider of robot-assisted surgeries for prostate removal, having performed at least 4,000 robot-assisted surgeries since 2001.  This week’s successful use of robotic surgery for the removal of the cancerous kidney is expected to be the first of many such procedures in the future.

Source: Henry Ford Health System