PANCREAS – TRANSPLANT

PANCREAS – TRANSPLANT BREAKTHROUGH RAISES HOPES FOR DIABETICS

SWEET SUCCESS

The Da Vinci Shdi robot’ carries out the transplant at Pisa's University Cisanello Hospital

Pisa (Italy): Italian doctors have carried out the world’s first robotically-assisted pancreatic transplant in an operation that could help diabetes sufferers everywhere, they said.

The robotically assisted operation “creates new prospects for the treatment of diabetics, because its “mini-invasive” nature strongly reduces post-operation complications, the team at the university hospital in Pisa said. The robotic technique allows surgeons to carry out the transplant through three small holes and a 7cm incision, the hospital said.

This will put an end to the decades-old dilemma of whether it’s possible to do pancreatic transplants because the operation is so invasive when done in the traditional way.” Ugo Boggi, who heads the team, said.

The transplant was carried out on a 43-years old mother of two who had suffered from the type one diabetes since she was 24 years old and had already had a kidney transplant. The patient suffered no complications from the three hour operation.

Pancreatic transplants have been very invasive until now because of the organ’s vascular structure and the fragility of diabetic patients, who in 50% of cases develop post operative problems. The medical team carried out the operation with the assistance of the “Da Vubcu SHDI robot”-a large machine with several arms – designed in the multidisciplinary Robotic Surgery center in Pisa.