A doctor in the United States has completed a historic surgery by operating on a cancer patient in Angola, Africa, using a robot.
Dr. Vipul Patel, who leads the Global Robotic Institute at Advent Health in Orlando, carried out the surgery from Florida. He removed part of the prostate of a 67-year-old man named Fernando da Silva. Da Silva had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in March.
The surgery was performed in June using a cutting-edge robotic system. Patel conducted the procedure remotely through transcontinental robotic telesurgery, making it the first time such a method was used at this scale in a clinical trial.
Da Silva was selected as the first patient under a human clinical trial that received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The aim was to test if surgery could be done safely across long distances using robotic tools and high-speed internet.
Patel explained that the technology had taken years to prepare. “We’ve been working on this really for two years,” he said. “We travelled the globe, looking at the right technologies.”
Robotic Surgery Technology Breaks Barriers in Medical Access
In traditional robotic surgeries, surgeons are usually located within the same hospital as the patient. However, this breakthrough procedure used fibre optic cables to bridge the long distance between Florida and Angola. Patel confirmed that there were no delays in the robot’s responses. “There was no perceptible delay in my brain,” he said.
His surgical team was physically present in the operating room with Da Silva during the procedure. The doctor explained that they had several backup plans. “We made sure we had plan A, B, C, and D. I always have my team where the patient is,” he said.
If any technical issue had occurred, the local team in Angola was ready to complete the surgery safely. “The team would just take over and finish the case and do it safely,” he assured.
The successful procedure has been described by Patel as a game-changer in global healthcare. “It was a small step for a surgeon, but it was a huge leap for health care,” he said.
He added that many underserved areas around the world, including rural parts of the United States, could benefit from this innovation. “Internationally, obviously, there’s so many underserved areas of the world,” he said.
Patel said the technology could make it possible for surgeons to assist from remote locations, even in emergency situations. “Emergency room physicians will have technology that can be remotely accessible to surgeons, maybe even in the ambulance,” he said.
He plans to submit all the data from this surgery to the FDA. His hope is that more people can benefit from remote surgical interventions in the future.
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