Since October 2021, the Da Vinci XI robots have already assisted in over 240 surgeries and have had breakthroughs in cancer-related procedures in the province and the medical fraternity has welcomed the extra help.
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A first of its kind for state hospitals in South Africa, the devices were brought to Cape Town little over a year ago, having already proven extremely successful, with robotic-assisted procedures conducted every 25 seconds globally.
These robots can assist in an array of minimally invasive surgical procedures in specialised fields including gynaecology, urology, cardiothoracic, colorectal and general surgery.
They also reduce blood loss, aid infection recovery while also resultless scarring after surgery.
Staff at Groote Schuur Hospital were the first to unpack the device followed, a matter of weeks later, by Tygerberg.
Speaking to the Weekend Argus, Rozaun Botes of the Western Cape Health Department said that Tygerberg had succeeded in completing 157 surgeries without issue despite loadshedding.
“Urology has performed 56 operations, uro-gynae, 44, colorectal 22 operations, abdominal surgery 11 and gynaecology 24 operations,” said Botes, adding that a total of 50 staff members had been trained.
“As far as load shedding is concerned, load shedding does not affect the hospital in total, therefore no effect on any surgery.”
Department of Health spokesperson Byron La Hoe said that four surgeons had been trained as to how to operate the device, adding the Da Vinci XI had reduced the backlog of operations such as cancer.
“Groote Schuur Hospital has trained four surgeons and has begun a process to train an additional two surgeons,” he said. “One of the areas that the hospital has been performing robotic surgical procedures is rectal cancer surgery.”
“These patients are spending shorter time at Groote Schuur Hospital post-operatively, as their recovery time is shorter than regular rectal cancer surgery. This frees up bed space, which is always under pressure.”
“In total, Groote Schuur Hospital has performed 83 robotic operations thus far. Here is the breakdown of robotic surgery performed thus far at Groote Schuur Hospital.
“Urology has performed 30 operations. colorectal has performed 25. Abdominal surgery has performed 20 operations and gynaecology has performed eight operations.”
Also read:
Robotic surgeon launched at Groote Schuur Hospital – ” Da Vinci X-i”
Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library