The da Vinci Xi robots were brought to provincial health departments to assist in surgeries, and it has done just that.
The robots have assisted in 240 surgeries and have had breakthroughs in cancer-related procedures.
The devices were brought to Cape Town in October 2021 and were the first of its kind for state hospitals in South Africa.
Robotic-assisted surgery takes place every 25 seconds globally.
The devices can assist with a spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures such as gynaecology, urology, cardiothoracic, colorectal and general surgery. They also reduce blood loss, aid infection recovery and there is less scarring after surgery.
The first to unpack the device was staff at Groote Schuur Hospital and weeks later, Tygerberg Hospital received their own robot.
Rozaun Botes of the Western Cape Health Department said Tygerberg, which had received the second da Vinci Xi device, had succeeded in completing 157 surgeries without any hiccups despite load shedding.
“Urology has performed 56 operations, uro-gynae, 44, colorectal 22 operations, abdominal surgery 11 and gynaecology 24 operations. A total of 50 staff members were trained.
“As far as load shedding is concerned, load shedding does not affect the hospital in total, therefore no effect on any surgery.”
Department of Health spokesperson Byron La Hoe said their staff complement had trained four surgeons how to operate the device and that it has alleviated the stress of the backlog of operations such as cancer.
“Groote Schuur Hospital has trained four surgeons and has begun a process to train an additional two surgeons,” he said. “One of the areas that the hospital has been performing robotic surgical procedures is rectal cancer surgery.
“These patients are spending shorter time at Groote Schuur Hospital post-operatively, as their recovery time is shorter than regular rectal cancer surgery. This frees up bed space, which is always under pressure.
“In total, Groote Schuur Hospital has performed 83 robotic operations thus far. Here is the breakdown of robotic surgery performed thus far at Groote Schuur Hospital.
“Urology has performed 30 operations. colorectal has performed 25. Abdominal surgery has performed 20 operations and gynaecology has performed eight operations.”