AIIMS Jodhpur doctors use fully robotic surgery to repair food pipe

Dr Vaibhav Varshney of Surgical Gastroenterology Department told Medical Dialogues, " The patient was a 27-year-old man who under the influence of alcohol accidently consumed acid. It damaged his food pipe and he could not even swallow his saliva. The doctors at Jodhpur, after much consideration, used a method known as 'Ivor-Lewis Esophagectomy'. During this process, the stomach or abdomen is administered incisions to remove the damaged part of the digestive system. Also, it is either assisted or replaced with a temporary solution."

Thus, the damaged food pipe was removed robotically and replaced by new food pipe created from stomach, called as 'Ivor-Lewis' operation in medical terms. This complicated surgery was done by only four 8 mm incisions.

Professor M K Garg, the medical superintendent of AIIMS Jodhpur, stated that the man had consumed acid 9 months back due to which his food pipe was fully damaged due to which he was unable to eat by mouth and was being fed through a tube inserted into abdomen. Commonly, the surgery for this condition is done by long incisions at neck, chest and abdomen which cause significant pain causing slow recovery from surgery and long unsightly scars after surgery.

This complicated and technically challenging case was admitted under Dr Vaibhav Varshney in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology who is experienced in successfully treating such cases. The innovative idea to do the case completely using robot was made by the surgical team comprising of Dr Vaibhav Varshney, Dr Subhash Soni, Dr Selvakumar B and Dr Peeyush Varshney.

The surgery was assisted by Dr Raghav Nayar (Surgical Gastroenterology), Dr Pradeep Bhatia and Dr Kamlesh Chaudhary (Anesthesia) and nursing staff Mrs Santosh Kudi and Mr Dilip Meena. Due to precise robotic technique and control, the patient had less bleeding during surgery and less pain after surgery. He was started on food 4 days after surgery and was discharged 6 days after surgery.

Dr Vaibhav Varshney, Associate Professor in Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, informed that successful surgical treatment for food-pipe damaged by acid intake is being carried out at AIIMS Jodhpur and is free of cost under the various Government health schemes. Other complicated surgeries of the stomach, intestine, liver and pancreas are also carried out in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology at AIIMS Jodhpur.

Professor Sanjeev Misra, Director of AIIMS Jodhpur, congratulated the entire surgical team and praised them for their dedicated efforts in improving patient care. He also stated that this surgery will serve as a milestone in robotic surgeries in India.