LAHORE: The Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) claims to have performed successfully the first-ever robotic surgery at the institute.

The PKLI medics on Monday declared it a revolutionary advancement and a game-changer in the medical history in the province.

The robotic surgery, also called robot-assisted surgery, allows doctors to perform various types of complex procedures with more precision, flexibility and control as compared to conventional techniques. It is usually associated with minimally invasive surgery — procedures performed through tiny incisions. It is also sometimes used in certain traditional open surgical procedures.

The doctors say the most widely used clinical robotic surgical system includes a camera arm and mechanical arms with surgical instruments attached to them.

A spokesperson for the PKLI said Dr Nadeem Bin Nusrat, the chairman of the Urology Department, along with the entire team, had made this groundbreaking feat possible.

“This is a new level of precision and care will revolutionise the way we approach surgeries.”

Dr Nadeem said the surgery was a radical nephrectomy and the patient was able to go home within a few hours of the operation.

The robotic surgery was performed by the highly skilled team of senior medics, including professor of urology and leading Robotic surgeon from SIUT Karachi, Dr Mohammad Rehan Mohsin, associate professor of urology from SIUT, Dr Riaz Hussain Laghari, with assistance from the team of medics from the PKLI and CMR Surgical from Dubai, Karachi and Lahore.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023