In a major breakthrough doctors at K S Hegde Charitable Hospital have performed a successful Robotic Whipple Surgery for patient suffering from Pancreatic cancer. A 57-year-old patient was referred to K S Hegde Hospital with abdominal pain, jaundice and weight loss. He was admitted and evaluated by Dr.Chandrashekar Sorake, HOD, Medical Gastroenterology & Hepatology. He underwent CT Scan, Endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy and was diagnosed to have locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
Management of advanced pancreatic cancer requires a multidisciplinary team of doctors. The patient was evaluated by doctors from Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology, Oncology, Radiology, Pathology and other allied departments. As the patient had locally advanced cancer it was decided to give chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumor before undertaking surgery. The patient received four cycles of chemotherapy under the expert guidance of Dr Vijith Shetty, Consultant Medical Oncologist. PET scan done after chemotherapy showed good response with reduction in size of pancreatic cancer.
The patient was advised to undergo Whipple surgery which is a major surgery requiring removal of part of Pancreas, small intestine, bile duct & stomach. Routinely Whipple operation is done by open surgery and requires a large incision or cut in the belly. This may delay patient recovery and longer time to return to routine activities. As advanced Robotic surgery is available at K S Hegde Hospital the patient was offered the option of Robotic Assisted Whipple surgery which has advantage of small incisions, surgical precision and early recovery.
After counseling the patient and relatives they opted for Robotic assisted surgery which was done with the help of advanced da-Vinci surgical robotic system. The Robotic surgical team consisted of Dr Santosh Kumar, Dr Praveen Bhat from Department of Surgical Gastroenterology & GI-HPB Oncosurgery, OT nurses and support staff. The procedure took 9 hours and was completed successfully with minimal blood loss. The anaesthesia for such major surgeries is challenging and was expertly managed by Dr Avanish Bhandary, HOD, Department Anaesthesia and critical care, Dr Govindaraj Bhat, Dr Joylene D’souza , Dr Ranjan Nayak and team . The patient had an early recovery due to good nursing care and was discharged within a week. The patient is doing well a month after surgery and is receiving post-operative chemotherapy.
Dr Santosh Kumar, Consultant GI & HPB surgeon explained that Robotic assisted surgery provides enhanced 3D vision, and with advanced instruments helps the surgeon to perform complex surgeries with precision and minimal blood loss. Contrary to the popular belief the robot does not perform surgery, it is the surgeon who performs the full surgery controlling the robotic instruments.
Dr Sandeep Rai, Dean, KS Hegde Medical Academy and Dr Sumalatha R Shetty, Medical Superintendent congratulated the team and informed that more than 200 advanced robotic surgical procedures have been conducted successfully by various surgical departments at K S Hegde Charitable Hospital benefiting the needy patients. The patient is from a low socioeconomic background and the surgery was made possible by support and encouragement from the institute and Nitte management.
