At the international conference of the Indian Association of Gynaecological Endoscopists (IAGE), Robert K. Zurawin stated that the concept of robotic surgery is yet to become popular in India, mainly due to the cost involved in the procedure. He is the director of the fellowship programme for minimally invasive gynaecology surgery at the Baylor College in Texas. He expected robotic surgery to become popular in another five years’ time.
As many as 25 endoscopy surgeries were performed at the conference by a team comprising national and international experts. Zurawin spoke about the advancements in the robotic surgical methods in the US, which involved the use of robots, which were capable of reproducing human hand and wrist movements. Robots proved useful in treating prostate and gynaecological cancers and in performing colon surgery. Zurawin explained that surgeries that were performed by robots were very precise and caused minimum trauma to the patient. According to him, such surgical procedures are yet to become popular in India mainly due to the high costs of up to Rs 6 crore and the equipment cost of around Rs 80,000.
Zurawin commented that India had good doctors but was found to be lacking in terms of training facilities and infrastructure.He expressed his desire to conduct a fellowship training program for the Indian doctors in order to enhance their teaching abilities and training competence. Apart from Zurawin, Jon IvarEinarsson from the US and Peter von Theobald from France were the other experts who participated in the conference. Sunitha Tandulwadkar, who was the organising chairperson, explained that surgeries such as uterus removal, cysts and fibroid removal etc that were performed in the operation theatres were relayed live so that the right methods were shown to the surgeons.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/