Hospital bids to be first to give patients surgery by robots

A MAJOR campaign was launched yesterday to raise the £2.5 million needed to establish Scotland's first "robotic" surgical theatre at one of the country's leading acute hospitals.

The fund-raising drive has been launched by Ucan, the North-east's urological cancer charity, to establish and equip a theatre at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) with cutting-edge robotic surgical equipment, to treat patients suffering from a range of diseases at the busy hospital.

The robotic surgery will be made available to urological, general surgery and gynaecological teams at the ARI, but is expected to particularly benefit patients with prostate, colorectal and gynaecological cancers and other specialities such as cardiac and paediatric surgery.

Sam McClinton, a consultant urological surgeon in Aberdeen and chairman of Ucan, said the robotic equipment would provide surgeons with a powerful and highly advanced tool that would enable precision surgery to be carried out on many more patients, speeding up operating times.

The robotic equipment mimics a human hand and is controlled remotely by the surgeon, who sits a few feet away and watches greatly magnified 3D high-definition video images of the operation on a screen.

This allows very delicate and complex procedures to be carried out with relative ease while still allowing keyhole surgery to be used.

Mr McClinton said: "This is the first equipment of its kind in Scotland and will help to ensure ARI can continue to provide the very best possible service for the people of the North-east, Orkney and Shetland.

"Integrated theatres allow safer treatment of patients undergoing keyhole surgery, with improved patient outcomes such as reduced hospital stay, quicker return to work and reduced complication rates.

"The introduction of a robot in the operating theatre reduces the training time for surgeons as well as being less physically demanding on the surgeon during the operation - which is particularly important when procedures take several hours. It will also increase productivity by reducing staff preparation time, theatre turnaround time and operating times."

The 2.5m target includes the cost of a theatre suite at ARI with two integrated operating theatres.

The campaign was backed by 62-year-old twin brothers Jim and Sandy Presly, who were both diagnosed with prostate cancer within a few months of each other. Jim, a retired biology teacher, had the traditional operation at ARI while his brother, a plant breeder, was treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge using robotic equipment.

Jim spent four days in hospital after the operation and has a 10cm scar.He was able to walk a mile two weeks after being discharged.

But Sandy said: "The morning after the operation, I sat in a chair and after lunch I walked up and down the ward before being discharged that afternoon.

"I've got seven very small scars, which healed very quickly with no problems."