Vietnamese Doctors Perform First Stomach Cancer Surgery with Robot

The doctors in Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on March 20 conducted the first stomach cancer surgery with robot arms for a male patient from Dong Thap province, local media reported. The patient, 54 years old, had gone to the hospital with symptoms of indigestion. After performing diagnostic and laboratory tests, he was diagnosed with stage 3 gastric cancer. The surgery was expected to cut 2/3 of the patient’s stomach and thoroughly remove cancer tumors by surgical robots with a surgery time of about four hours. Robotic surgery will allow surgeons to thoroughly remove cancerous lymph nodes, while limiting blood loss and tissue damage and minimizing the risk of cancer metastases and relapses. The advantage of robotic surgery in gastric cancer treatment is that the robot system has a high resolution 3D display, enabling surgeons to clearly see the intra-abdominal structures, especially metastatic nodes, to remove them thoroughly. Binh Dan is the first hospital in Vietnam licensed by the Ministry of Health to treat adult patients with robots. So far, more than 60 patients have undergone surgeries for major cancers such as colorectal and pancreatic cancer. (hanoimoi.com.vn Mar 20, vietnamplus.vn Mar 20, vietnamnet.vn Mar 20)