Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad recently hosted a one day Robotic Gynaecology Workshop at Apollo Health City.

The Workshop was inaugurated by Dr Prathap C Redddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. Sangita Reddy, executive director, Apollo Hospitals Group; Dr Meenakshi Jain, world renowned minimally invasive gynaecologist from USA, and senior consultant gynaecologists & robotic surgeons at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, Dr Lakshmi Reddy, Dr Vindhya Reddy; Dr Priyamvada Reddy; Dr Rooma Sinha; Dr Anuradha Panda; Dr Prameela Shekhar & Dr Shanti Reddy were present on the occassion.

Dr Meenakshi Jain delivered a lecture on ‘Role of Robotic Surgery in Pelvic Pain in Women’ at the workshop.

Apollo Hospitals organised this workshop for the first time in the country. The live demonstration of Robotic Hysterectomy & Robotic Myomectomy (removal of fibroids), was also arranged from the operation theatre to the conference hall, which had presence of gynaecologists from across the city.

After getting US FDA approval for robotic assisted laparoscopy in 2005, it is rapidly finding its place in gynaecological surgeries. Robotic surgery is an advanced computer enhanced laparoscopic surgery that helps the surgeon to perform precise & detailed surgery. Robotic instruments can access hard-to-reach areas of the human body more easily especially in pelvis during gynecological surgeries. Contrary to the myth, it is the surgeon and her skill that determines the outcome of the surgery and not the robot.

The advantages of the robotic systems to women includes: less chance of converting to open; due to precise movement, tissue trauma is less; with better dissection in the right planes and the ability to suture more quickly, there is significantly less intra-operative blood loss; patients also experience faster healing with less post-operative pain; faster recovery within two weeks; excellent precision and visualization offered by the da Vinci SI robotic surgery enhances the surgeon's ability to suture the uterus so the future pregnancy outcome is good.

Since a year of robotic gynaecological surgeries, Apollo Hospital has done complex and difficult hysterectomies (removal of uterus), myomectomies (large sizes and multiple in number) and endometriosis. There was no need to convert them to open surgeries in any of these cases, giving benefit to our women and bringing a smile on their faces. This technology gives an opportunity for a significant paradigm shift in the surgical management of a gynecological disease that is typically prevalent in obese, post-menopausal women. These have higher risk of wound complications if undergo laparotomy. Minimally invasive surgery, specifically with robotic assistance, has increased the possibilities of performing minimally invasive surgery in morbidly obese women.