Mangaluru: Doctors at KS Hegde Charitable Hospital have performed a successful robotic Whipple surgery for a patient suffering from pancreatic cancer. A 57-year-old patient was referred to KS Hegde Hospital with abdominal pain, jaundice and weight loss. He was admitted and evaluated by Dr Chandrashekar Sorake, HoD, medical gastroenterology & hepatology.He underwent a CT scan, endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy, and was diagnosed to have locally advanced pancreatic cancer. As the patient had locally advanced cancer, it was decided to give chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumour before undertaking surgery. The patient received four cycles of chemotherapy under the guidance of Dr Vijith Shetty, consultant medical oncologist. PET scan done after chemotherapy showed good response with reduction in size of pancreatic cancer.The patient was advised to undergo Whipple surgery, which is a major surgery requiring removal of part of the pancreas, small intestine, bile duct and stomach. Routinely,Whipple operation is done by open surgery and requires a large incision or cut in the belly. This may delay patient recovery and result in a longer time to return to routine activities. The advantage of robotic-assisted Whipple surgery is of small incisions, surgical precision and early recovery.The robotic-assisted surgery was done with the help of advanced da Vinci surgical robotic system. The robotic surgical team consisted of Dr Santosh Kumar, Dr Praveen Bhat from department of surgical gastroenterology and GI-HPB oncosurgery, OT nurses and support staff.The procedure took nine hours and was completed successfully with minimal blood loss.
