GUWAHATI, Sept 10: The first remote robotic gallbladder removal surgery in Eastern and Northeastern India was performed on two patients at a private hospital here, an official claimed on Wednesday.
The operations were carried out on both patients using the Made-in-India SSI Mantra robotic system, with lead surgeon Prof Subhas Khanna Khanna controlling the robot from Gurgaon and performing the surgeries from nearly 1,950 km away on Tuesday.
Both patients are recovering well and are fit to be discharged within 24 hours, Khanna told reporters on Wednesday.
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“Convincing patients of something new and innovative is not easy. I am grateful to both my patients for the blind faith they placed in me as I was not physically present near them, but they trusted me and happily agreed to undergo the surgery,’ Khanna said.
This facility will now help patients get the best treatments even in small cities through tele-connectivity, he added.
Remote robotic surgery is not entirely new to the world, with the first such procedure — the famous ‘Lindbergh Operation’ — carried out in 2001 when a surgeon in New York removed a patient’s gallbladder in France’s Strasbourg, Khanna said.
Since then, progress has been slow due to high costs and connectivity challenges, but with advances in robotics, secure networks, and high-speed data transmission, there has been a resurgence of global interest, he pointed out.
Remarkably, such procedures have not yet been attempted in many leading corporate hospitals across India, making the achievement at Swagat Super Speciality Hospital particularly significant, Khanna said.
For Assam and the Northeast, this step carries far-reaching implications, the surgeon said.
‘It promises to deliver specialist surgical care to patients without the need for long and difficult travel, offers hope for soldiers and citizens living in remote border areas, and enables real-time collaboration between experts across different geographies,’ he added.
Most importantly, it positions Assam as a pioneer in cutting-edge surgical technology in India, he said.
The critical IT backbone was coordinated by Anivesh from Gurgaon, along with Binay and Amandip from the hospital in Guwahati.
On-site surgical support was provided by doctors Areendam Barua, Pranab Das, and Supriya Choudhary, while anaesthesia care was led by Kanineeka Das.
Robotic scrub nurses Vidya Devi, Alvanisha Dkhar, Reena Pradhan, and Lipika, together with biotechnician Jintu, ensured seamless execution of the procedures. (PTI)
