Mumbai: A 64-year old Mazgaon resident underwent a robot-assisted bypass surgery to clear three blockages that had drastically reduced blood flow to his heart. Businessman Burhan Motiwala is the first one to have undergone the robotic bypass procedure in the city, which took place at Saifee Hospital. While robot-assisted surgeries cost nearly double, doctors say that the recovery and healing is extremely fast as the procedures are minimally invasive.
“In a regular open heart surgery, a patient will have an eight- to ten-inch-long incision across the chest,” said Dr. Aliasgar Behrenwala, head of cardiothoracic surgery at the Saifee Hospital. “But through a robot-assisted procedure, the patient required merely a six-centimetre-long cut.”
The hospital’s management purchased the robot known as the da Vinci Si surgical system about two years ago. “It has been used in many other oncology, prostate, kidney and gynaecological procedures. But this is the first cardiac procedure we have performed with its help,” said Dr Behrenwala.
The patient, Mr. Motiwala, was suffering from high blood pressure for a long time. Two months ago, he suddenly complained of severe chest pain and pain in the arm. “We took him to the Prince Aly Khan hospital,” said Mr Motiwala’s wife, Rashida. “They implanted two stents in an emergency procedure. However, the doctor said that a bypass surgery was needed.” It was when the family went to Saifee, that they learnt about robot-assisted surgeries. “Since the healing is much faster, we decided to opt for it,” Ms. Motiwala said, adding that they paid around ₹4.5 lakh for the procedure.
Describing the operation, Dr. Behrenwala said that like in regular bypass procedures, the patient is put under anaesthesia. “The robot is then docked near the operation table while the surgeon sit on a console from where commands are given to operate the four robotic arms.” He said that these arms move with acute precision, which means better access to the operation site. “This particular patient had three blocks in the left ventricle. So we took vessels from the chest wall and grafted them to the heart, creating a new route for the blood to flow.”
While most bypass patients spend more than a week in the hospital, Mr. Motiwala left for home on the fifth day after the procedure that was carried out on May 24, and is all set to travel to the US on Thursday. “I got back to my routine two weeks after my surgery. I could go to my shop at the Abdul Rehman Street, deal with clients and resume all the chores,” said Mr Motiwala, who deals in glass beads.
The da Vinci Si surgical system costs over ₹12 crore; many city hospitals have been using them for various kinds of surgeries. Bandra’s Asian Heart Institute was the first one to purchase the machine for cardiac procedures, back in 2012, but had shut the unit and sold the machine to Saifee Hospital in 2015.
A spokesperson from AHI said, “Around the world, several established hospitals have tried to work with robotic arms for cardiac surgeries. However, the technology has not developed to that extent. So while a robot would be an asset for several simpler procedures and minimises blood loss, it is not very useful in the kind of complex cardiac cases that are routine at Asian Heart. Hence; even though we were the first to set up a robotic unit, we have not continued the same.”
