First robot surgeries carried out at city hospital
BBCThe first robot-assisted surgeries using 3D vision have been carried out at a city's hospital.
The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has used the system, which is controlled manually by a surgeon, on about 17 patients needing bowel cancer treatment and some smaller abdominal operations.
The North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC), which runs the hospital, said the technology allowed surgeons to be more precise, meaning less pain and quicker recovery for patients.
The hospital's colorectal consultant and surgeon Chris Rao said he hoped 90% of the trust's keyhole operations would be done with a robot "within a short space of time".
The da Vinci Xi robotic‑assisted surgical system has been used across England for more than a decade, but it is new for the trust.
NCIC said it hoped to also introduce a robotic system at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven in the "near future".
"People in Cumbria really deserve to have the same quality of care people everywhere elsewhere in the country have," Rao said.
Lee Ellis, who recently had gallbladder surgery, was one of the first patients at the hospital to be operated upon using the new technology.
The 43-year-old from Carlisle said he was recovering quicker than he expected and the scars were "a lot neater" than in previous surgeries he underwent.
Rao said robotic surgery was known to improve cancer outcomes in some medical specialities.
He added: "In my speciality, people tend to go home one or two days earlier, they have fewer complications so they have fewer readmissions, or you're able to do more operations in a day."
