NHIS (National Health Insurance Service) Ilsan Hospital said it has successfully conducted a retroperitoneal renal tumor resection using a minimally invasive single port, for the first time in the world.
The surgery requires advanced techniques to use a Da Vinci Xi robot, pierce a hole in the retroperitoneum, and remove a tumor in the kidney.
The hospital said Wednesday it was the world’s first to perform the procedure on April 26 on a 66-year-old female patient who had a five-centimeter tumor in the left kidney. The patient had a high risk of hemorrhage because her renal tumor was close to the large blood vessels.
However, Lee Hyung-ho, a professor at the Urology Department, led the operation to success, and the patient was discharged within three days after the surgery without suffering any complication.
NHIS Ilsan Hospital said only highly skilled surgeons can perform kidney operations because kidneys have intricate blood vessels, and a mistake could lead to massive bleeding during surgery. Physicians perform partial kidney extraction only in limited cases, and robotic surgeries often involve multiple piercings in the abdominal cavity.
It is still possible for other hospitals to use a new Da Vinci SP model to extract a kidney through a single-port procedure. To do so, however, surgeons have to open up the abdominal cavity and use several robotic arms, making it difficult to access the kidney through the retroperitoneum. It would also cost much, Ilsan Hospital said.
The latest surgery by Lee’s team at Ilsan Hospital is relatively affordable because it involves the use of a single robotic arm. After surgery, the scar remains minimally. The new surgery technique also lowers the chance of postoperative bleeding or intestinal injury, reducing the risk of complications.
“The robotic surgery through a minimally invasive single port is very difficult to do, but it’s safe, and we can accurately remove a tumor,” Lee said. “With the minimal cost, it can ease burdens for patients. It can also raise cosmetic satisfaction. I hope it can be a new surgical technique in renal tumor resection."