KUWAIT: The Kuwait Ministry of Health (MoH) revealed on Saturday the use of the world’s newest surgical robot device in performing an operation to remove a prostate from a patient suffering from a cancerous tumor. The MoH said in a statement that the robot (Da Vinci Xi) was used in the operation conducted last Wednesday at the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Urology Center. On the same day, a regular robot was used to remove the kidney of another patient who also suffered from a cancerous tumor.

The director of the center, Dr Saad Al-Dosari, said that Dr Ali Abdul Wahab performed the two operations for the patients who left the center the next day. According to the statement, Al-Dosari said that the device (Da Vinci Xi) is one of the latest technologies applied in robotic surgeries and is used in multiple specialties. He pointed out that the operation performed using this device is characterized by low bleeding and does not cause acute pain as with traditional operations, as it does not require large incisions and wounds, as well as reducing the patient’s hospital stay.

He added that what distinguishes surgical operations performed using a robot compared to a normal endoscope is the perfect 10-fold magnified and three-dimensional vision, in addition to the robot’s hands having extreme precision because they contain joints that enable them to rotate like a human hand, allowing sewing to the smallest millimeter using the smallest types of needles and threads, in addition to “hand tremor filtering”, which facilitates the surgeon’s work and reduces the rate of complications.

Al-Dosari pointed to studies that have proven that “robot-assisted surgeries are safe. More than five million robot-assisted operations have been performed globally. Robot has been adopted by the American Food and Drug Administration as a technique used to perform surgical operations by surgeons who have received certified training.”

He pointed to the increase in the number of robotic devices used at the Sabah Al-Ahmad Kidney and Urology Center. This is to ensure that the MoH uses the latest technologies in surgical procedures, specifically artificial intelligence technologies. He said that since 2014, the center has witnessed more than 1,500 major robot-assisted surgeries, including radical removal of the prostate, bladder, kidneys, and tumors, and modification of the congenital defect in the kidney pelvis. — KUNA