Balikesir University hospital: surgeons in Istanbul remotely remove kidney tumor with robot, kidney preserved

A surgical team in Istanbul remotely controlled a robot to remove a kidney tumor in a 34-year-old patient at Balikesir University hospital, according to turkey-breaking.com. The kidney was preserved turkey-breaking.comturkey-breaking.comturkey-breaking.comOpen source ↗. The hospital head said this was the first use of remote surgery for a cancer patient in Turkey. The material does not give the date of the operation.

How the remote operation was organized

Before the operation, the internet connection, the infrastructure and the robotic system were tested repeatedly. The surgical team controlled the robot from Istanbul, while the team in Balikesir followed the procedure in real time. Prof. Sakir Ongun of the urology department at Balikesir University said the operation was done with remote surgery technology, with participation of Prof. Bulent Ulen of Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa.

Ongun said that success in this kind of surgery requires two experienced teams: one at the control center and one where the patient is, to deal with any fault or problem. He added that the Balikesir team had the necessary experience and that the technological infrastructure of the city and the hospital was sufficient.

Hospital head Bahadir Caglar said the delay in carrying out surgical commands did not exceed about 50 milliseconds. For comparison, he noted that a blink of an eye lasts roughly 400 milliseconds. He said this level could be a world record, which is his own assessment turkey-breaking.comturkey-breaking.comturkey-breaking.comOpen source ↗. According to Caglar, the aim of having two teams in different locations is to combine their expertise.

Statements from the university

University rector Yucel Ugurlu received the medical team and thanked the participants. He said the operation, for kidney cancer, belonged to category A surgeries and that its success shows that infrastructure shortcomings lasting for years had been overcome. He also said the university had recruited more than 70 professors over the past three years.

Ugurlu announced that new departments and clinics would soon open at a joint ceremony. Two buildings of 64 beds each are due to be completed in November. Caglar said the university intends to provide higher-quality and more specialized health services as it expands the use of modern technology. The material does not report the patient's condition after the operation.