Through a “small incision,” a hospital in Spain carried out the first robotic lung transplant. On Monday, April 17, 2023, Albert Jauregui, director of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona’s Lung Transplant Service, provided details of the ground-breaking treatment in a press briefing. According to Reuters, the method uses a robot and a different access point that does not require cutting through the bone.
The doctors removed the diseased lung by cutting a small part of the patient’s skin, fat, and muscle using the four-armed “Da Vinci” surgical robot. The replacement one is then implanted by the machine through an eight-centimeter incision made above the diaphragm and beneath the sternum.
In the operating room, the physicians deflate the new lung, making it small enough to fit through the little incision. They did, however, make small cuts in the rib cage to adjust the robot arms and 3D cameras. “It’s a part of the body that has the advantage of having a very elastic skin, which gives room to widen the opening without having to touch a single rib,” Jauregui said
New lung transplant technique using a small incision below the sternum without breaking the ribs
Lung transplants are considered ‘aggressive’ surgeries because they require a 30-centimeter incision in the chest, shattering the ribs to access the organs. However, Jauregui claims that the organ was replaced “with a small incision below the sternum without breaking the ribs” utilizing the new procedure. Despite the fact that smaller incisions are commonly used for lung transplants at numerous hospitals, this was the first time doctors limited the incision to soft tissues.
Albert Jauregui also stated that the new lung transplant technique is less unpleasant for the patient and that the wound heals rather quickly.”We believe it is a technique that will improve patients’ life quality, the post-surgery period and reduce pain. We hope this technique will eventually spread to more centers,” he told Reuters.
The innovative lung transplant technique was performed on Xavier, a 65-year-old man suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, by surgeons at Vall d’Hebron Hospital. Xavier remarked that the new technique benefited him. “From the moment I regained consciousness and woke up from general anesthesia, I had zero pain,” he stated.