Jawharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) has completed 50 cases of Robotic Assisted Minimal Access Surgeries.
 

According to a JIPMER release here on Friday, a team of doctors including anesthesiologists headed by Dr. Sandeep Mishra, Head of Anesthesiology and Dr.V. K. Mohan, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and urologists led by Dr. R. Manikandan, Head of the Department of Urology, performed robotic assisted partial nephrectomy in a patient with a renal cancer.

So far, different departments have performed these fifty cases in a truly multi-disciplinary program. The Urology Department had performed 24 cases, the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology had performed 6 cases, Department of Surgical Oncology had performed 10 cases and the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology had performed 10 cases. According to Jipmer Director Dr S C Parija the rapid development of these services has been feasible due to the hard work put by the anesthesiologists, surgeons of different specialties, nurses and other staff of JIPMER.

Dr. Parija pointed out that JIPMER is the only centre in South India where robotic surgery facilities is provided in a Government hospital. The institution has been providing this high value service to the patients at a very subsidized cost. The user charges for robotic surgery is only Rs. 50,000 for a private ward patient and Rs. 30,000 for general ward patients which is much less compared to the corporate hospitals where these facilities is available and the charges are about Rs. 2 to 3 lakh per procedures. Soon other departments such as Paediatric Surgery, Cardiac Thoracic and Vascular Surgeries, and ENT (head and neck surgery) will also start performing robotic assisted procedures in the near future so that this high value service is fully utilized for the benefits of the common man, Dr. Parija said.