A 71-year-old man underwent robotic-assisted surgery for treatment of bladder cancer at Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai on October 4.
The patient had a past history of diabetes mellitus and had presented with complaints of increased frequency, urgency, and occasional hematuria (blood in urine). The patient’s full body PET/CT scan showed a tumour in the urinary bladder involving bilateral VU junction causing hydroureteronephrosis (swelling of ureters). The patient underwent trans-urethral resection of tumour (removal of bladder tumour) for extraction of sample for biopsy. The biopsy confirmed urinary bladder cancer. According to doctors, the patient underwent four cycles of chemotherapy and he is stable and doing well.
Dr Amolkumar Patil, Senior Consultant Urology, Uro Oncology, Kidney Transplant & Robotic Surgery Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai said, the surgery was planned after the case was discussed in the tumour board in which they decided to perform a robotic-assisted surgery to remove the urinary bladder and prostate gland. Since both the prostate gland and urinary bladder were removed from the patient’s body.
“We performed an ileal conduit procedure wherein a new tube from the intestine is created for the kidney pipes to drain and the urine to exit the body. The advantages of robotically-assisted surgery are that it is minimally invasive & enables high surgical accuracy. Compared to conventional surgery, blood loss is less therefore chances of infection are significantly reduced and patients recover faster. There is a positive impact on resources for both patients and healthcare facilities,” he said.
Dr Tejinder Singh, Consultant, Medical Oncology was consulted for adjuvant chemotherapy which is often used after primary treatments, such as surgery, to lessen the chance of your cancer coming back. Even if your surgery was successful at removing all visible cancer, microscopic bits of cancer sometimes remain and are undetectable with current methods. “The patient underwent four cycles of chemotherapy and he is stable and doing well,” he said.
Santosh Marathe, Regional CEO of Western Region, Apollo Hospitals said, “A robotic surgery helps us treat elderly patients efficiently as quick recoveries are vital for elderly patients and such curative care techniques improve their quality of life. To date, more than 9200 robotic ally-assisted surgeries have been performed at Apollo Hospitals – one of the many firsts, Apollo has achieved over the decades.”
