MUMBAI: A 54-year-old woman from Oman with suspected kidney cancer underwent a remote robotic surgery on Tuesday, with the operating surgeon controlling the procedure from Mumbai while the patient was over 1,500 km away in Muscat.“A team of urologists from our hospital was stationed at Medical City Muscat Hospital, a military hospital, ready to physically intervene if needed, but the remote surgery went off without a hitch,” said Dr T B Yuvaraja, director of uro-oncology and robotic surgery from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospitals, Andheri, who performed the surgery from Mumbai. According to the hospital, this is the first cross-border remote robotic surgery performed from India. In Dec 2025, Dr Yuvaraja operated on a patient in Mumbai from Shanghai, about 8,000 km away. Dr Yuvaraja said, “What we are witnessing is a shift in how healthcare will be delivered globally.” He said the ability to operate across borders in real time means that access to the best medical expertise is not defined by geography. The collaboration came about after the military hospital in Muscat, which had recently acquired a robotic arm, was looking for a technical partnership with another hospital in robotic surgery. “The company that manufactured the arm brought us together, with our team performing a surgery in Muscat on another patient on Monday. The next day, we decided to do the remote operation from Mumbai,” said the doctor. Studies estimate that roughly five billion people worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgical care; telerobotic surgery is being promoted to improve surgical access. The number of telerobotic surgeries has been increasing, with hospitals using robotic arms across their various branches. SS Innovations International, maker of the indigenous SSII Mantra robotic system, recently said it had completed 100 robotic telesurgeries. However, use of the robotic arm increases the cost of a surgery by Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. The doctors say that robotic precision helps reduce the hospital stay and recovery time for the patient.
