Robots are controlled by surgeons and do not operate on their own: Dr Al-Ghanim

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 26, (KUNA): Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital announced successfully conducting the first kidney incision operation using a robot.

The hospital had previously operated six times on patients using the robot to treat medical cases including obesity, urinary tract diseases, colon, general surgery and others, said head of the genito-urinary surgery department, Dr Saad Al-Dousari in a statement on Saturday.

Kuwait started using robots in operations in February 2014 in Sabah Al-Ahmad Urology Center, conducting over 300 operations since then, he said.

On his part, senior urology specialist Dr Mohammad Al-Ghanim said robot operations allow patients to leave the hospital within 48 hours, and back to their normal life fast.

Moreover, he noted that robots can reach body organs that doctors find hard to reach and don’t leave surgery wounds that require a long time to heal.

The robots are controlled by surgeons and do not operate on their own, said Dr Al-Ghanim, adding that they only create a less than 1 cm opening in patients for the operation.