Jipmer crossed a milestone when it completed the 50th Robotic Assisted Minimal Access Surgery.
The procedure was led by a team of doctors, including anaesthesiologists headed by Sandeep Mishra, head of anaesthesiology and V. K. Mohan, assistant professor, and urologists led by R. Manikandan, head of the department of urology.
The team performed robotic assisted partial nephrectomy on a patient with renal cancer.
S.C. Parija, director, Jipmer said the rapid development of these services would not have been possible without the efforts of a dedicated team of anaesthesiologists, surgeons of different specialties, nurses and other staff.
The Urology Department has performed 24 cases, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology six cases and the Department of Surgical Oncology and the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology 10 cases each.
According to Dr. Parija, Jipmer was 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 subsidised cost.
The user charges for robotic surgery is pegged at ₹50,000 for a private ward patent and ₹30,000 for general ward patients which is way less compared to the ₹2-3 lakh per procedure charged by corporate hospitals.
Dr. Parija said that 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 utilised for the benefits of the common man.
