In a breakthrough for remote surgery, a Hyderabad-based urologist successfully carried out a tele-robotic ureteric surgery on a patient in India while operating from Wuhan, China, nearly 3,000 km away.
The patient, a woman in her 50s, was admitted to the Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology with a blockage in the lower ureter the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. The condition required surgical removal of the blocked portion and reattachment of the ureter to the bladder.
After examining the patient and planning the procedure in Hyderabad, urologist Dr. Syed Mohammed Ghouse travelled to Wuhan in China’s Hubei province for a surgical conference. From a robotic console at Tongji Hospital, he remotely controlled robotic surgical instruments during the operation on 18 May.
Using a real-time magnified 3D imaging system, Dr Ghouse guided robotic arms through the patient’s abdomen while remaining seated thousands of kilometres away. The surgery lasted around 90 minutes, and the patient was later discharged after recovery.
Dr Ghouse described the operation as the world’s first tele-robotic ureteric reimplantation procedure performed across such a long distance.
The surgery formed part of the 10th Congress of the Chinese Chapter of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, where 26 live surgeries were demonstrated. Five of these involved international tele-surgical collaborations with doctors from countries including India, Brazil, Greece, Georgia and Uzbekistan.
According to Dr Ghouse, robotic surgery itself is already widely practiced, but the key achievement in this case was conducting the procedure remotely from another country. He said the surgery experienced a delay of less than 100 milliseconds, supported by a stable international internet connection routed through Singapore.
The procedure was performed using the Toumai Surgical Robot, developed by Chinese company Shanghai MicroPort MedBot.
AINU currently operates both the Da Vinci Surgical System developed by Intuitive Surgical and the Toumai robotic system. Dr Ghouse said he has performed more than 2,000 robotic surgeries using the Da Vinci system and around 70 procedures using the Chinese platform.
He also noted that both locations involved in the surgery must use the same robotic system, as different robotic platforms are not interoperable. A medical team in Hyderabad remained present in the operating room throughout the procedure and was prepared to intervene manually if required.
