Cancer patient has new bladder created by a robot

A CANCER sufferer has become the first person in the UK to benefit from a robotically-constructed bladder.

Surgeons at Southmead Hospital, in Bristol, have developed a technique in which they remove a cancerous bladder through a tiny incision and, through the same opening, replace it with a substitute bladder created by a robot – the Da Vinci – from the patient’s own tissues.

Ken Harries, 61, was diagnosed with bladder cancer last May and underwent the procedure, known as a radical cystectomy and neo-bladder, in October.

Mr Harries, from Downside, near Bath, has recovered from the surgery to become the first person to have a bladder constructed robotically in the UK.

Mr Harries said: “I suppose I was a little bit shocked when they said I’d be the first, but that soon disappeared and it was a very simple choice.

“The only way I could look at the cancer was to say ‘I am going to beat this’, and I am so glad I decided to go through with the operation.”

The keyhole surgery is less invasive, because the hospital’s Da Vinci robot has greater precision and the procedure as a whole has a faster recovery time. The £1.5 million surgical robot – which a surgeon controls from a nearby console – is so precise it can peel a grape.

The procedure is being carried out by Southmead’s consultant urologists, Edward Rowe and Anthony Koupparis.

Mr Rowe said: “Our abilities to carry out urological procedures robotically is expanding and we are developing a real expertise.”