IGIMS hopes to start robotic surgery in a yr
THE SET-UP ALLOWS A SURGEON TO SIT COMFORTABLY IN A CONSOLE AND CONTROL ALL FUNCTIONS AT A DISTANCE FROM THE OPERATING TABLE WITHOUT ASSISTANT
PATNA: The Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) will strive to become Bihar’s first state-funded healthcare facility to introduce robotic surgery, which allows safer surgeries with better precision and minimal incision while also reducing hospital stay, recovery time and morbidity of patients.
IGIMS director Dr NR Biswas Saturday said he hoped to introduce robotic surgery facility at the institute within a year after training his doctors in it.
For this, he said the institute would soon float a proposal to the state government to have a robotic surgery-compatible operation theatre along with state-of-the-art robotic equipment at the IGIMS.
The set-up allows a surgeon to sit comfortably in a console, like a cockpit, and control all functions at a distance from the operating table, without the necessity of an assistant. The setup allows control of camera and movement of instrument and the surgeon gets to see magnified 3D anatomy, say up to 20 times its original size, making minute vascular details clearer, avoiding post-operation complications, as s/he operates upon the patient with the robotic arm.
Earlier, Dr Sharique Nazir, a New York City-based, boardcertified robotic, bariatric and laparoscopic surgeon at Brooklyn, delivered a talk on robotic weight loss surgery as part of a conference organised by the gastrointestinal surgery department of the IGIMS on Saturday.
He said sleeve gastrectomy, a robotic surgery in which people lose 60%-70% of excess body weight, was more prevalent
as part of weight loss operation in the US now. It was also better than gastric bypass.
Dr Nazir cautioned about obesity, a killer disease, people were yet to realise here. If uncontrolled, Bihar could soon be staring at an obese population, he added.
“There’s a general tendency that people shy away from
home-cooked food and instead opt for fast food, like burger, fried chicken, club sandwich, biryani, momo, all of which were not healthy and adds to obesity. These may lead to colon cancer, heart diseases, lung problem, cancer of breast and prostrate,” he said.
He also cautioned parents about obesity in children and said they should not shower their love by allowing children to binge.
“If you tend to eat more, the capacity of the stomach goes on increasing like elastic and it then becomes difficult to get it back to its original size by dieting and exercise. This is when you need surgical intervention in the form of bariatric surgery when the body mass index if 40 and above,” added Dr Nazir.
Dr Manish Mandal, medical superintendent and head of the GI surgery department, IGIMS, said 20%-30% patients were coming to the institute due to complications arising out of obesity. He said the obese population was increasing by 25%-30% every year in the state.
“If not checked, obesity will lead to hypertension, diabetes, thyroidism, asthma and related diseases,” added Dr Mandal.
Prominet among others who attended were Dr Barnwal, president of the association of surgeons of India, Bihar chapter, Dr Abdul Ahmed Hai of the Paras-HMRI hospital, Dr Atul Verma of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, Dr Sanjay Kumar, Dr Saket, Dr Amarjeet Kumar Raj, Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh and Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, all from the IGIMS.