JK News Today

Jammu, Sep 15:

 The advancement in technology, medicine and healthcare sector, observed a paradigm shift in treating patients with critical diseases and robotic surgeries in ENT, Head and Neck are the future of medicine  claimed Dr Kalpana Nagpal, Senior Consultant & Robotic Surgeon, Dept of ENT and Head & neck surgery, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.

She was speaking during outreach outpatient department (OPD) treatment launched by Apollo Hospitals for patients in winter capital.

One such instance is the use of robots for performing critical surgeries with high precision, dexterity and maneuverability under the observance of surgeons.

Dr Kalpana Nagpal said, “Robotic Surgery helped improve surgical outcomes to a great extent and also proved boon for performing complex procedures with ease and safety. Conventional head and neck procedures require a lot of surgical dissection with large incisions which can be avoided in Robotic surgeries.”

 “These surgeries are not performed by the robot but commands are given by the surgeons,’ she said.

“Human wrists, elbows and shoulders only have a limited degree of movement unlike robotic arms which have 360 degree movement. They can reach inaccessible areas with ease as they are snake like and flexible. Movements by the robotic arms are miniature by 5 mm instruments unlike gross hand movements of the surgeons making complex surgical procedures successful with high precision,” she added.

Dr Kalpana Nagpal further added that surgery with a medical robot is a great alternative to conventional procedures for patients and can replace both open and laparoscopic procedures in many cases. Transoral (through the mouth) robotic surgery is minimally invasive, and greatly reduces the recovery time and its side effects.

She listed out different types of head and neck surgical procedures that can be performed successfully through robotic-assisted surgery which includes snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, thyroid surgery, parathyroid surgery, neck dissections, tumours of oral cavity, oropharynx and larynx, recurrent nasopharyngeal cancer and others others like Hemangiomas, Lingual thyroid, floppy epiglottis, elongated styloid processes (Eagle’s syndrome) and cysts in the lower throat.