Asian-Indian surgeon performs maiden robotic thymectomy in Long Island

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 08 December 2010, 12:46 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Bangalore: Shahriyour Andaz, MD, an Asian-Indian surgeon becomes the first to perform robotic-assisted surgery to remove the thymus gland in Long Island. Dr. Andaz, Director of Thoracic oncology at South Nassau Communities Hospital, performed the procedure on a 49-year-old patient who had been diagnosed with a two-centimeter, PET-positive mass in the thymus gland. "If I had not used the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, the procedure would have been a traditional sternotomy, which requires a large vertical incision to break open the sternum, at least three hours to complete, and a lengthy post-operative recovery," said Andaz. Andaz needed just four small incisions on the left side of the chest to insert a small scope and pencil-thin robotic assisted surgical instruments. The scope provides a three-dimensional view of the surgical field on high definition monitors, while the surgical tools were used by Andaz to remove the thymus gland. The procedure took about 90 minutes and the patient was discharged from the hospital two days after the surgery. The number of robotic-assisted procedures performed at hospitals around the world has increased from 80,000 in 2007 to 205,000 in 2009. Robotic-assisted surgery is most commonly used to treat men diagnosed with early prostate cancer. Andaz and other South Nassau surgeons also use the da Vinci to perform general, urologic, gynecologic, kidney and chest procedures.