Kazakhstan performs first robot-assisted stomach surgery

Surgeons at the Almaty Cancer Center operated using a robotic surgical system.

The team used ICG navigation — a technology that helps the surgeon better visualize the necessary structures — and performed a D2 lymph node dissection, removing regional lymph nodes in line with oncological principles.

Nurlan Baltayev, a PhD and Head of the center's Surgical Oncology Department, described the course of the operation and the opportunities robotic surgery creates.

"The robotic system allows the surgeon to work with high precision. We see the operating field in an enlarged three-dimensional image, can examine anatomical structures in greater detail, and perform complex manipulations in hard-to-reach areas. The system also filters out the natural micro-tremors of the surgeon's hands," he said.

For the patient, robotic technology means a complex procedure can be performed through small punctures instead of a large surgical incision. This reduces surgical trauma and speeds up recovery.

The stomach operation was the 15th robotic procedure performed by specialists at the Almaty Cancer Center. Robotic surgery has previously been used for diseases of the colon and rectum, prostate, kidney, and uterine body.

The center performs more than 3,000 operations a year, over 60% of them minimally invasive. In some cases, this approach allows a patient to get up and start moving on the day of surgery.

It is noted that with robotic technology, modern cancer surgery can now take on increasingly complex cases using minimally invasive techniques.

As Qazinform previously reported, doctors in Almaty successfully removed a 2-kilogram sacrococcygeal teratoma from a newborn girl whose total birth weight was just over 4 kilograms — meaning nearly half her body mass was the tumor.