1st robotic surgeries on kidney cancer patients

A team led by an Indian-origin surgeon has successfully performed robotic surgeries on kidney cancer patients, using only seven small incisions and four robotic tools. Surgery is required when cancer of the kidney causes a Level III thrombus, or clot, to develop in the major vein leading back to the heart.

Traditionally this procedure, known as inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombectomy, is performed using a large open incision, primarily because the vein is often difficult to reach.

In a new study, the surgeons reported the first cases in which this procedure had been successfully performed robotically, using only seven small incisions and four robotic tools.

“Level III IVC tumour thrombectomy for renal cancer is one of the most challenging open urologic oncologic surgeries,” said Inderbir S Gill, of the University of Southern California Institute of Urology in US. “While IVC tumour thrombus occurs in only 4-10 per cent of all patients with otherwise organ-confined kidney cancer, surgery is the only cure. The ability to do this complicated procedure in a minimally invasive way represents a major advancement,” Gill said.