A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK’s first long\u2011distance robotic operation on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away in Gibraltar.<\/p>\n
Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt \u00ab\u00a0almost as if I was there\u00a0\u00bb as he carried out a prostate removal on Paul Buxton.<\/p>\n
The cancer patient, 62, said it had been a \u00ab\u00a0no-brainer\u00a0\u00bb to take part and become \u00ab\u00a0part of medical history\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
It is hoped that remote robotic surgery could spare future patients the \u00ab\u00a0vast expense and inconvenience\u00a0\u00bb of travelling for treatment, and help deliver better healthcare to people in more remote locations.<\/p>\n
UK surgeons have taken part in major telesurgery breakthroughs, including a 4,000\u2011mile transatlantic robotic stroke procedure on a cadaver – a body of someone who has donated themselves to science – proving long\u2011distance surgery was technically possible.<\/p>\n
Buxton is originally from Burnham\u2011on\u2011Sea in Somerset but moved to Gibraltar 40 years ago.<\/p>\n
Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, has just one hospital, St Bernard’s at Europort, meaning residents with more complex medical needs often have to travel abroad, usually to the UK for NHS care if eligible.<\/p>\n
Buxton had expected to be put on an NHS waiting list after receiving a shock prostate cancer diagnosis just after Christmas, but he \u00ab\u00a0jumped at the chance\u00a0\u00bb to be the first patient to undergo the treatment remotely as part of a trial.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0A lot of people actually said to me: ‘You’re not going to do it, are you?’<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I thought, I’m giving something back here,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
Buxton, who owns a transport company, added: \u00ab\u00a0If I hadn’t gone for the telesurgery in Gibraltar, then I would have had to have flown to London, I would have had to go on the NHS waiting list, get the procedure done and I would have probably been in London for three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0So I thought: ‘This is a no\u2011brainer’.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It is pioneering for Gibraltar, because you don’t need to leave Gibraltar.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Buxton said he was \u00ab\u00a0really well looked after\u00a0\u00bb and was \u00ab\u00a0feeling fantastic\u00a0\u00bb following the operation on 11 February.<\/p>\n
The operation was performed from The London Clinic using a robot equipped with a 3D HD camera and four arms, all controlled through a console with a delay of only 0.06 seconds.<\/p>\n
The console in the UK was connected to the robot in Gibraltar via fibre\u2011optic cables, with a backup 5G link.<\/p>\n
A team in Gibraltar remained on standby in case the connection failed, but it held throughout the procedure.<\/p>\n
The operation used the Toumai Robotic System, in a collaboration between The London Clinic and the Gibraltar Health Authority.<\/p>\n
Dasgupta said: \u00ab\u00a0This gives us the opportunity to treat patients in remote areas and smaller communities by literally being able to take the best surgeon anywhere.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
This was the first of two test cases, the second involving an unnamed 52\u2011year\u2011old man on 4 March, also in Gibraltar.<\/p>\n
Dasgupta will perform the procedure again on 14 March, which will be live\u2011streamed to 20,000 world\u2011leading urological surgeons at the European Association of Urology congress.<\/p>\n
He added: \u00ab\u00a0I think it is very, very exciting, the humanitarian benefit is going to be significant.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The NHS is prioritising local robotic\u2011assisted surgery, aiming for 500,000 robot\u2011supported operations a year by 2035.<\/p>\n
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK’s first long\u2011distance robotic operation on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away in Gibraltar. Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt \u00ab\u00a0almost as if I was there\u00a0\u00bb as he carried out a prostate removal on Paul Buxton. The cancer patient, 62, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}