Telesurgery, a Successful World First

For the first time in history, a man in Luanda, Angola, underwent robotic surgery remotely led by a doctor in the United States, proving that telesurgery is a viable and successful option for safely treating patients.

“The telesurgery, which was carried out very successfully, made history, not only at this hospital unit, but also in the country, Africa, and the world, as it was the first telesurgery with a greater distance between the surgeon and the patient” explains Francisca Kifica, Clinical Director at Complexo Hospitalar de Doenças Cardio-Pulmonares Cardeal Dom Alexandre do Nascimento.

A man with prostate cancer was operated on in the Angolan capital, with Dr. Vipul Patel as lead surgeon, who dialled in live from Orlando, Florida, to control the robot from across the Atlantic. Delay or latency of the connection has always been questioned in telesurgeries, and this first successful telesurgery confirmed that this type of surgery is safe. This further proves that the future of medicine is robotic.