http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11188/1158865-100.stmAGH announces robotic advancement in kidney transplantation
By Sean D. Hamill
Allegheny General Hospital officials today said they performed the region's first robotic nephrectomy last week, a technique so minimally invasive that the living donor went home within a day of his kidney removal.
Hospital officials believe the technique results in such a large reduction in pain and impact to a living donor that it could help increase the number of kidneys available for the ever-growing list of people who need a transplant.
The technique uses the Intuitive Surgical company's da Vinci Surgical System. Surgeons sit at a console equipped with a viewer that shows binocular footage inside the donor's body.
The surgeons have their own hand movements expressed through pencil-sized probes inserted in the donor's body through half-inch incisions. The small robotic devices compensate for natural tremors in the human hand, allowing even finer degree of movements.
The surgery was completed June 30 at AGH by by Dr. Kusum Tom, assisted by Dr. Akhtar Khan. The donor's kidney was flown to Columbia University Medical Center in New York, where it was successfully transplanted into a 65-year-old man with end-stage renal disease.
The donor has requested anonymity, but said in a press release that offering his kidney to a complete stranger came down to a simple desire to "significantly improve someone's life."
He went home within a day of the surgery, compared to a three- to four-day stay with the normal, non-robotic kidney-removal technique. The donor is doing well, the hospital said.
"With da Vinci, our minimally invasive surgical capabilities are advanced considerably, resulting in even less pain and a faster recovery for our donor patients," Dr. Tom said.
Sean D. Hamill: shamill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2579.
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