How a surgical robot could allow your doctor to operate on you from another state

Imagine getting ready for surgery knowing your surgeon won’t be in the room. It could happen sooner than you think.

Imagine getting ready for surgery knowing the doctor who will operate on you won’t actually be in the room — they could be in another state or even country.

This week, a Northern Territory man travelled to Sydney’s Lifehouse for a prostate cancer operation, where he was operated on by a four-armed multimillion-dollar robot.

While this robot was controlled by a doctor less almost 3m away, it won’t be long before the same surgery could be conducted remotely by a doctor in another state.

In fact, it’s already happening in China.

Just last week, a Chinese surgeon conducted the first “telesurgery” between Rome and Beijing, a distance of more than 8000km, in a medical first.

The robotic surgery at Sydney’s Lifehouse last week. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Using the cutting-edge Da Vinci robot and a fast internet connection, the surgeon was able to perform the prostate surgery with great success.

While Australia isn’t there just yet, Associate Professor Ruban Thanigasalam, who has completed more than 700 of the innovative robotic procedures, says it could be less than five years before the same thing is happening here.

“Our hope is that in the near future we could be sitting in Sydney doing the surgery with the robot, while the patient is in Alice Springs,” Dr Thanigasalam said.

“That means we could do these sorts of prostate surgery without delay and in areas that may be more remote.”

Professor Ruban Thanigasalam. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Dr Thanigasalam operates from a distance. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

At 11.30am on Friday, The Saturday Telegraph was in the operating theatre as the Da Vinci robot, controlled by specially trained A/Prof Thanigasalam, began its work, removing a cancer from the patient at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.

“It has four arms, and each arm controls an instrument, and one of them has a camera, which we put inside a patient through keyholes,” Dr Thanigasalam said.

“We sit at a separate console to perform the surgery.”

From dissection to stitching, Dr Thanigasalam controlled every tiny and precise movement from what can be likened to two joysticks.

It took around two hours, and due to the tiny microscopic movements only a robot can make, he procedure was less invasive than human-performed surgery, meaning a quicker recovery.

Robotics are set to play a big role in the future of medicine in Australia, with the surgery live-streamed to top doctors at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s Institute of Academic Surgery’s Surgical Robotics and Innovation Summit.

“Like breast cancer in women, prostate cancer is very common in men, there are thousands of people diagnosed every year,” A/Prof Thanigasalam said.

“There is a lot of stigma around men going and seeking treatment, they can be worried about having surgery, or the side effects.

“But thankfully, with these techniques we are demonstrating, we’ve definitely made big strides in improving outcomes for patients and helping them recover their functions earlier.”

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