New surgical robot for Peter Mac cancer patients

15 April 2011

New robotic technology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will reduce the time cancer patients spend in hospital for highly complex keyhole surgeries.

The Peter Mac is the first public hospital in Victoria to install the state-of-the-art da Vinci robotic surgical system.

Inspecting the surgical robot at Peter Mac with Health Minister David Davis, Premier Ted Baillieu said the breakthrough robotic surgical technology enables surgeons to perform complex surgery through keyhole incisions with greater accuracy and precision.

"The technology will also reduce the length of hospital stay from about five days to overnight for some procedures, which is a huge benefit to cancer patients and their families," Premier Baillieu said.

Mr Davis said Peter Mac has also established the Academic Robotic Cancer Surgery Program to take advantage of the new technology.

The Program will provide training and research opportunities for health professionals at Peter Mac and other health services. It will provide leadership in the development of robotic surgery services in Victoria through a world-class multidisciplinary robotic cancer surgery program.

While called a robot, the da Vinci is a surgical tool which facilitates complex laparoscopic surgical procedures. It is not capable of independent movement but responds to the surgeon’s commands via an advanced remote-control system.

Using hand and foot controls, the surgeon manipulates the camera system and miniature instruments inside the patient’s body, allowing for extremely precise and delicate surgery to be performed through tiny incisions.

Video

Video transcript

A/Prof Declan Murphy:
So this is the Da Vinci surgical robot which we’ve recently acquired at Peter Mac for doing cancer surgery for public patients throughout Victoria.

It’s composed of the three different components. This is the main robot cart which has four robot arms. Typically the patient is lying on the operating table here. There’s a large telescope which shows us magnificent magnified views from inside the abdomen. These three robotic arms allow us to do complex dissection within the patient.

Just over here is the vision cart which controls the brains of the robot if you like.

And most importantly over in this corner is how we control the robot. This is the surgical console. All the activities of the robot, the surgery and the vision are all controlled by the surgeon sitting here looking into the 3D magnified view and controlling the robotic arms using hand and foot controls.

The commonest implication for robotic assisted surgery is removal of the prostate in men with prostate cancer. So in this model here, you can see the bladder, the prostate and the urethra.

Men pass their urine through here, through the centre of the prostate and out through the urethra. If a man has prostate cancer and needs to have his prostate removed, traditionally that’s done through a large open incision. With this robotic surgical system, we can remove the prostate and join the bladder back down to the urethra through very tiny incisions which means that instead of spending up to a week in hospital, patients typically go home the next day. A big saving in term of patient recovery and indeed hospital bed stay.

Robert Giblin (patient):
For me it was really good. I walked out of hospital the next day. Although I come from Hobart, I didn’t go home but went into a self-serviced apartment so I was much more comfortable there and it was perfect.

Ted Baillieu MP (Premier of Victoria):
This is a great step forward potentially for the public health system. We are committed to supporting this process right through. It’s a great addition to this hospital, it’s well located here, it’s in the hands of fantastic surgeons. We recognise there’s an important role for the government to assess the use of the system and ensure any benefits which can flow to the public health system more broadly are made available and evaluation and assessment will take place and we’re committed to doing that.

David Davis MP (Minister for Health):
I think it’s important this facility is available inside the public system and that option is there for Victorians as is appropriate.

Further information

To find out more about Robotic Assisted Surgery using the da Vinci, visit the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre website.