Times of India
25 January 2010
By Malathy Iyer
Mumbai, India

Docs Turning Hi–Tech To Improve Quality Of Treatment For Patients
Nine years after a Delhi hospital bought a robotic arm to perform surgeries, a city hospital is all set to acquire one of its own.

The Asian Heart Institute in Bandra–Kurla Complex will get the latest version of the robotic arm complete with 3–D vision and a joystick instrument that mimics the fingers’ each dexterous move. “The previous versions had a rigid movement pattern, but the EndoWrist will help the surgeon move his fingers more easily at the console. We will get this customised robot in April,” heart surgeon Dr Ramakant Panda, who performed a redo bypass surgery on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this day last year, said. Dr Panda said the robotic arm would help patients as it would aid precision in surgeries as well as ensure that the cut is minimal. “Five to 10 years down the line, robotic surgery will be the technique for surgery, be it in the fields of general surgery, orthopaedics, cardiac surgery, urology and gynaecology,” said Dr Panda. He believes 80% of the robotic arms application would be in the non–cardiac field.

The robot comprises a console where the surgeon sits to operate the various robotic arms, which carry out the minimal cuts. India got its first robotic arm when Delhi’s Escorts Hospital acquired one for bypass surgeries. Since then, other hospitals in Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai have been using the robotic arm for various operations. Mumbai has so far kept away from it, mainly because of the cost involved, said a senior surgeon. Last year, Hinduja Hospital held a seminar in which doctors from New York Presbyterian showed how robotics could simplify prostrate surgery.