Qatar surgeons first in Gulf for robotic heart op

ROBOTIC OP: The pioneering surgery can drastically reduce a heart patient's stay in hospital from six weeks to four days. (Getty Images - for illustrative purposes only)

The Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar has become the first health organisation in the Gulf region to conduct robotic heart surgery.

Three patients have undergone the pioneering beating-heart totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (BHTECAB) surgery at HMC, officials revealed.

“The patients had coronary artery disease, which involved blockage in one of the coronary arteries. Two of the surgeries were done [on Tuesday] and one [on Wednesday],” Dr Abdul Wahid Al Mulla, consultant cardiac surgeon, HMC, said in comments published by The Peninsula on Thursday.

“These are the first operations on the heart using Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical System, not only in Qatar but also in the Gulf region,” he told the paper.

HMC has been using the same technology in its urology department and a number of urological procedures have been carried out with it, he added.

The hospital will soon conduct robotic surgery in other departments as well, including the general medicine, paediatric and cancer departments, the paper reported.

The da Vinci Surgical System comprises two components — a surgeon’s console with a high-definition 3D vision system and a patient-side cart with arms manipulated by the surgeon.

Surgical instruments are mounted on the robotic arms which are introduced into the body through cannulas. The surgeon’s hand movements are scaled and filtered to eliminate hand tremor and then translated into micro-movements of the instruments.

Open rib surgery involves a hospital stay of up to six months while robotic-surgery patients can leave in four days.

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