A Saudi hospital has performed the world's first-ever fully robotic liver transplant on a patient suffering from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis, in a move to ditch hybrid techniques.
The Riyadh-based King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre carried out the procedure on a 66-year-old patient who additionally suffered from hepatocellular carcinoma, carried out by the hospital’s Organ Transplant Center of Excellence (OTCE).
The surgery was carried out without the use of a hybrid approach, meaning that the surgery was performed entirely using a ‘state-of-the-art’ robot.
The OTCE claims that its specialisation lies in performing surgeries that rely on smaller more precise incisions, which it argues is more reliable in preventing complications and allowing patients to be successfully discharged more often.
The recipient of the liver was successfully discharged following the procedure.
Dr Dieter Broering, executive director of the OTCE, said: "With this remarkable feat, we at KFSH&RC reaffirm our commitment to pushing the boundaries of medical innovation and enhancing the quality of healthcare services offered to patients worldwide.
“The successful implementation of fully robotic liver transplants marks a pivotal moment in the history of organ transplantation and firmly positions KFSH&RC as a world-leading centre in this field."
Since the implementation of the OTCE in 2010, the hospital now offers several adult and pediatric transplantation programs: Heart, Stem Cell, Liver, Kidney, Lung, Pancreas, Bone Grafts, Small Intestine, and Corneal.
In 2021, there were 3,640 patients accepted with a 60% increase compared to 2020. A total of 1,367 transplant procedures (solid organ and stem cell) were successfully conducted in 2021.
The robotics industry is growing at a CAGR of 29% and will be worth $568bn by 2030, according to GlobalData. In 2021, GlobalData valued the surgical robotics market at $9.6bn.
In September, UK robotic surgery group CMR Surgical raised $165m and US surgeons used Moon Surgical’s Maestro system to aid weight loss surgery procedures, in what are the first-use cases of the robotic system in the country.
