Doctors at Binh Dan Hospital in HCM City have used a robot for the first time in Vietnam to perform surgery to treat lung cancer (Photo Coutersy of Binh Dan Hospital)HCM City (VNA) – Doctors at HCM City’s Binh Dan Hospital have used a robot for the firsttime in the country for lung cancer surgery, removing suspicious nodulesthrough a small incision instead of a large one and without using mechanicalrib spreaders, unlike in the past.
According to Dr Tran Cong Quyen of the hospital the minimally invasive surgicaltechnique helps patients recover faster and have significantly lesspost-operative discomfort than traditional open lung cancer surgery.
With manoeuverable wrists rotating through 540 degrees and a 3-D cameraproviding a view of healthy and suspicious tissues, the doctors view lungstructures and more precisely perform the surgery.
The hospital said in a press release that doctors performed the surgery on a56-year-old patient from Vinh Long province.
He said he had smoked nearly 40 cigarettes a day for more than 30 years, andalso suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.
He was brought to the hospital for treatment and tests showed two-centimetrenodules in his right lung.
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Doctors said 40 percent of the nodules were cancerous and had to be removed assoon as possible since they could prove fatal.
The surgery was done under the supervision of a Singaporean surgeon.
In Vietnam, the leading cause of death of men is lung cancer.
Among women, it is the third most common cancer.
According to Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, nearly 22,000 new cases of lung cancerare recorded in the country every year while 19,500 die of the cancer eachyear.
According to Quyen, smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, with second-handsmokers also being at high risk.
But most cases are not detected early.-VNA
VNA
