Windsor Regional Hospital's first use of the da Vinci Surgical Robot to remove tumours from kidneys has been declared a success.
The high-tech machine was purchased in 2014 and has focused primarily on treating an average of 50 prostate cancer patients a year.
Da Vinci officially added a successful surgery on a 54-year-old man for kidney cancer to its repertoire.
Dr. Raj Goel took the lead on the procedure AND says the machine resulted in five punctures and a 5cm incision below the belly button — that's compared to an incision from just above the belly button to the pubic bone.
Allowing his patient to bounce back in 48-hours instead of a week.
"A lot less discomfort and the patient was able to advance quickly in hospital, no question, it certainly provides a huge advantage to him," he says.
He says it took an entire team to make things go smoothly, including his surgical partner Dr. Tom Deklaj.
"If somebody was to tell me back in 2009 when we first joined at Windsor Regional Hospital that we would be doing robotic kidney surgery; we didn't think it would be possible and here we are on our first case and we're very excited," added Goel.
Goel tells AM800 News, unfortunately, da Vinci can't perform every kidney-cancer surgery.
"We're being very case selective and careful on where we choose our cases in order to maximize both outcomes for patients and for providing good cancer control," says Goel.
It's estimated 25 kidney cancer patients a year will be able to be treated with the da Vinci robot.
The da Vince robot arrived in Windsor thanks to the "It's In Your Jeans" fundraising campaign from 2012 to 2014 by the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation raising $5.4-million.
— with files from AM800's Kristylee Varley