Robotic surgery is beginning to transform one of the most complex abdominal procedures — liver transplantation — into a more precise, less invasive option, according to an April New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian news release.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City is currently the only U.S. center performing both deceased-donor and living-donor robotic liver transplants, completing six such cases to date, Juan Rocca, MD, surgical director for the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program and attending surgeon in the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery, told Becker’s.
“By transitioning from laparoscopic liver surgery to robotic liver surgery, we were able to tackle much more difficult operations,” Dr. Rocca said, noting that 70% of those procedures are now performed robotically, allowing surgeons to complete highly complex cases with a minimally invasive technique.
Cornell’s program also emphasizes continuous refinement, with small improvements incorporated into each case, according to Dr. Rocca.
“Anytime we reproduce these we don’t always do it the same,” Dr. Rocca said. “We always introduce a little bit of a variation, an improvement, something that we learn from a prior case.”
He noted the team exchanges insights with King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which achieved the world’s first use of an advanced robotic system to save the life of an 8-year-old child, as well as with Washington University in St. Louis to adopt innovations that can be applied across different surgical programs.
“The potential benefit of being able to retract minimally, with the robot, is to decrease the amount of injury the operation itself creates to save the life of the patient,” Dr Rocca said. “It is less blood loss, less blood transfusions after recovery of vital functions and short-term stay in the hospital.”
Traditional open liver transfer incision procedures carry about a 40% risk of hernia from the large incision. While only about 20% of transplant patients are ideal candidates now, Dr. Rocca said that share could rise to 40% to 50%, as technology and training advance and more teams adapt to the demands of robotic transplantation.
