A cardiac surgeon performed a successful operation on a patient 350 kilometres away by using a remote-controlled surgical robot, marking a European first.
A team of Polish medics has performed the first remote robotic surgeries between two hospitals in Europe, utilising a next-generation surgical platform to operate over a distance of more than 350 kilometres.
Cardiac surgeon Professor Piotr Suwalski, director of the State Medical Institute of the Ministry of Interior and Administration (PIM MSWiA) in Warsaw, performed a coronary bypass procedure on a patient in Warsaw while operating the robotic console remotely from a hospital in Gdańsk, northern Poland.
The procedure was performed using the EDGE MP1000, a surgical robot developed in China, valued at approximately €1.64 million.
The operation was the first cardiac surgery of its kind in Europe and marked the global debut of this new robotic platform in clinical use.
Later the same day, a second successful operation was carried out remotely: a radical prostatectomy, led by Dr Pawel Wisz, also from the State Medical Institute in Warsaw.
Despite the physical distance between surgeon and patient, the procedures were executed with remarkable precision, aided by a tele-transmission latency of just five milliseconds.
In a LinkedIn post, Professor Suwalski wrote: ‘August 1 was a special day. Together with Dr Paweł Wisz, we performed the first telesurgery procedures between two European teaching hospitals – Państwowy Instytut Medyczny MSWiA and the Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Gdańsk. We controlled the Edge Medical robot from a console located in the clinical hospital in Gdańsk, while patients with a full operating team and operating part were in Warsaw.
Państwowy Instytut Medyczny MSWiA plans to develop a training center based on various available robotic platforms, both stationary and telemedicine.
I would like to thank everyone involved in this ground-breaking event. We are not slowing down!’
