The UK’s first remote robotic surgery was recently performed with the surgeon in London and the patient 1,500 miles away in Gibraltar.
Prokar Dasgupta, professor of surgery and urology at King’s College London, conducted the remote robotic surgery on a prostate cancer patient using a high-speed internet connection and a surgical robot.
It marked a milestone that could greatly expand access to specialist care for patients in remote locations with limited medical facilities.
From The London Clinic, Professor Dasgupta operated a console to control a robot equipped with a 3D camera and three additional instrument arms, which removed Paul Buxton’s prostate cancer at St Bernard’s Europort in Gibraltar.
The surgery was performed with a brief lag of 0.06 seconds between surgeon and patient.
This was possible thanks to secure, high-speed fibre-optic connections and a dedicated backup link. An on-site clinical team was also available at St Bernard’s in case of a connection failure.
This makes patient Paul Buxton the UK’s first participant in remote robotic surgery.
By reducing the time, expense and inconvenience of travelling for more complex treatments, this technology brings advanced care closer to those most in need.
Professor Prokar Dasgupta said: ‘This gives us the opportunity to treat patients in remote areas and smaller communities by literally being able to take the best surgeon anywhere. I think it is going to be very, very exciting. The humanitarian benefit could be significant.’
He performed the same procedure on a separate patient via livestream to 20,000 surgeons at the European Association of Urology congress on 14 March.
Professor Sebastien Ourselin, head of the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London, added: ‘We are proud of Prokar’s long-standing commitment to driving surgical innovations using the latest medical technologies to break down barriers to treatment and improve the quality of care we provide to patients across the globe.’
In the 2023/24 period, around 70,000 robot-assisted operations were carried out in NHS hospitals in England, a number expected to rise significantly under national plans.
Health leaders have outlined ambitious goals for the coming decade, with projections suggesting that by 2035, around 500,000 robotic procedures could be performed annually in the NHS.
Under these plans, up to nine in ten keyhole surgeries, such as cancer removals, hysterectomies, joint replacements, and other minimally invasive procedures, could involve robotic assistance, compared with about one in five currently.
