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The surgical treatment of cancers has traditionally been by open techniques. Laparoscopic surgery has slowly been established as a feasible, safe and oncologically sound option for certain cancers including colon, endometrial, cervical and esophageal cancers. Laparoscopy however has limitations imposed by the 2-dimensional image, instruments with limited range of motion and dependence on a trained assistant for holding the camera. The learning curve to attain expertise in laparoscopic cancer surgery is also very long.
All these provide the ultimate in flexibility and precision for exceptional surgical technique. In cancer surgery,robotic techniques enable a radical operation to be performed with preservation of nerves and other critical structures due to better visualisation. This is particularly important in rectal and Gynaecologic Cancer surgeries.
What is important for the patient to note is that the surgeon, using the computer interface of the Robot to enhance his or her abilities performs the surgery and the Robot doesn't perform the surgery by itself.
Practically all cancers are amenable to this approach with the possible exception of locally advanced (T4 tumours).
Specific cancers where robotic surgery is able to provide excellent outcomes include:
We now have the expertise at Apollo Chennai to treat the above cancers robotically with outcomes on par with the best centres. An important area where the use of the robot enables a better quality of surgery than the open or laparoscopic approach is for rectal cancer dissection. The robot has its maximum utility in the narrow confined pelvis of the male patient with a low rectal cancer especially after chemoradiation. A number of papers from the United States and Korea have shown better outcomes than laparoscopy in this group. Additionally in obese patients, the robot levels the playing field and enables the same quality of surgery to be performed as in a patient with a normal body weight.
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