Robot to perform first kidney transplant

A robot is to carry out a British organ transplant operation for the first time.

Doctors at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital are to use the £1 million machine as part of keyhole kidney transplants.

The robot, called "Da Vinci" because of its mastery of fine detail, will be used to remove the donor kidney.

It makes a far smaller cut into the body than a surgeon would and makes it easier to complete precise tasks than with the surgeon's human hand.

The robot is to be employed for the first time in October after the surgeon who is pioneering its use receives training in America.

It is to be combined with keyhole surgery techniques to complete the life-saving transplants. Yesterday, surgeon Nizam Mamode, who is to operate the robot, said the procedure would be a major step forward.

Mamode said: "Robots are the future of medicine. This robot costs £1 million and is still a relatively crude instrument. We will look back on it in five years and wonder how on earth we did without it.

"It works on a master/slave basis so it is not like we are off drinking coffee while the robot does the operation. It only carries out the movements made by the surgeon."

Mamode added: "I think in my professional lifetime there will be a significant amount of surgery done robotically. A lot of the technology is already in place we just need some more imaging devices."

During the procedure, he will sit at a screen watching high-resolution three-dimensional images taken from a camera on the robot. Sensors strapped to his forefinger and thumb will pick up his movements and pass them to the robot's "fingers", which will carry out the same actions. The new technology means the surgeon can see in 3D instead of usual keyhole methods, which are only in two dimensions, making it difficult to judge the very precise distances of movements needed.

During the keyhole operation, a 7cm incision is made just below the bellybutton. This does not cut through muscle, making recovery faster and less painful.

The robot removes the kidney, which is then immediately available for transplant surgery.

Mamode is now planning for a second breakthrough: using robots to put the kidney in the recipient, a procedure that currently involves a massive incision and weeks of recovery.

Robots similar to Da Vinci, which was paid for by the hospital's charitable foundation, have already been used in other hospitals for operations where precision drilling is needed – such as in surgery on brains.

Mamode said studies into patients' attitudes to being operated on by a robot had been "very positive".

Cutting down surgery risk

London Dr Peter Rowe, chairman of the ethics committee of the British Transplant Society, said: "Anything that reduces the potential risk to the donor – and it seems the robot will do that – is a good thing."

About 50 per cent of the 150 kidney transplants done annually at Guy's use living donors, where a friend or relative of the patient donates the organ.

The robot surgeon is expected to make operations from a live donor more efficient and although they currently take slightly longer, are likely to be quicker than conventional surgery in the future.

© Evening Standard