Pakistan’s first-ever robotic surgical system to debut at SIUT in April

KARACHI – The first-ever robotic surgical system in Pakistan named ‘da Vinci’ will be installed at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in April. This was disclosed by Allmed Solutions (Allmed Group of Companies) Director Ejaz Mirza while speaking to Pakistan Today on Saturday.
The da Vinci Surgical System is designed to facilitate in complex surgeries using a minimal invasive approach. The system is controlled by a surgeon from a console and is being increasingly used for prostatectomy, cardiac valve repair and gynaecologic surgical procedures.
Costing $2 million, the system is based on three components: the surgeon’s console; computerised control system; and four instrumental arms. Three of the arms hold objects, act as a scalpel, scissors, bovie, or unipolar or dipolar electrocautery instruments while the fourth has an endoscopic camera with two lenses that give the surgeon full stereoscopic vision from the console.
“We will give a presentation of this robotic surgical system in the Pakistan Neurology Society’s annual meeting in April at the SIUT and this would be hopefully its launching time as well,” said Mirza, who informed that da Vinci was first used to treat survivors of the Iraq-Kuwait gulf war in 1990. Later, the robotic system was commercialised and is manufactured by the Intuitive Surgical.
According to its profile statement, the company is the global technology leader in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery and da Vinci Surgical System offers surgeons with superior 3D high-definition visualisation, enhanced dexterity, greater precision and ergonomic comfort for the optimal performance of surgeries. The original prototype for da Vinci was developed in the late 1980s at the former Stanford Research Institute under contract to the US Army.
While initial work was funded in the interest of developing a system for performing battlefield surgery, possible commercial applications were even more compelling. In June 2000, Intuitive Surgical completed a successful initial public offering that was followed by a second successful public offering in 2003. Today more than 1,676 da Vinci Surgical Systems are installed in over 1,500 hospitals throughout the world.
The name ‘da Vinci’ stems from the 15th century Renaissance inventor, painter and philosopher Leonardo da Vinci, who was greatly intrigued by mechanics and automation. He is widely regarded for advancing the study of human anatomy, which eventually led to the design of the first known robot in history.
This design, which has come to be known as ‘Leonardo’s Robot,’ was probably made around the year 1495 but was rediscovered in the 1950s.
The da Vinci Surgical System is used in several surgical specialties including urology, gynaecology, cardiothoracic, general surgery, colorectal, and head and neck.
In addition, it is used to treat a wide range of conditions including bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, coronary artery disease, endometriosis, gynaecologic cancer, uterine bleeding, kidney disorders, kidney cancer, lung cancer, mitral valve prolapse, obesity, prostate cancer, throat cancer, thyroid cancer, uterine fibroids, and uterine prolapse.