A Florida surgeon has performed the first telerobotic operation between two US hospitals, removing the prostate of a man with cancer from 35 miles away, according to officials.
Dr Vipul Patel, founder and medical director of the Global Robotics Institute at AdventHealth Celebration in suburban Orlando, on Sunday performed an investigational robotic prostatectomy on a 66-year-old prostate cancer patient who volunteered for a clinical study evaluating a robotic telesurgery system.
The patient, identified as Mark, was at an AdventHealth facility in Minneola, Florida, while Patel operated remotely from another AdventHealth facility in the community of Celebration. Study co-principal investigator and surgeon Marcio Moschovas provided onsite support to Mark during the procedure, an AdventHealth news release said.
Mark was recovering well after the procedure, AdventHealth told ABC.
The surgery was part of a clinical research study conducted under a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved investigational device exemption. Such an authorization permits the system to be studied but does not constitute FDA approval or clearance.
The procedure done on Mark came after 10 investigational telesurgeries between Orlando, Florida, and Luanda, Angola, while marking the study’s expansion into US hospitals, AdventHealth’s news release said.
“For generations, access to highly specialized care has often depended on where a patient lives,” a statement attributed to Patel said. His statement added: “This study allows us to evaluate whether telesurgery could one day help reduce geographic barriers to specialized treatment.”
Telesurgery allows surgeons to control robotic instruments remotely but researchers are still evaluating its safety, reliability and cybersecurity. AdventHealth said no previous reports have documented a telesurgery procedure between two US locations and cautioned that Sunday’s surgery does not establish the technology’s general clinical performance.
Robotic prostatectomy carries risks including bleeding, infection, incontinence and erectile dysfunction – as well as the possibility of switching to open surgery. Telesurgery adds risks such as equipment or connection failures and cybersecurity threats, making it essential for there to be an on-site team to take over if needed.
Sunday’s procedure in Florida unfolded after a similar headline-making operation just months earlier, when a surgeon in London used a four-armed robot equipped with a 3D camera to remove a man’s prostate in Gibraltar, about 1,500 miles away.
The London-Gibraltar surgery was successful, with a lag of just 0.06 seconds between the surgeon’s movements and the robot’s response.
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