annual report<\/a>.<\/p>\nOrthodontist Gerald Kersten, 65, diagnosed with prostate cancer, was among the first of 300 Islanders to undergo \u00adrobot-assisted surgery at Royal Jubilee last summer.<\/p>\n
The technology gave him a \u201csecond chance at life\u201d when the risk of traditional open \u00adsurgery was deemed \u201ctoo high\u201d given his rare blood-clotting disorder, \u00adhistory of stroke and \u00adblood-thinning medication.<\/p>\n
Friends advised him to seek treatment in bigger cities, but he said he was confident in the team and technology in Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn six weeks, I was cycling on our dream trip in Riccione, Italy,\u201d said Kersten, who retired in July and on Sept. 1 completed his final radiation treatment.<\/p>\n
The ability to perform minimally invasive surgery on patients who might not otherwise recover well or survive open surgery, and to see them discharged in days rather than weeks, is among the biggest benefits of robot-assisted surgery, McCracken said.<\/p>\n
Specialists can also collaborate on surgeries, working sequentially on the same patient for procedures involving multiple organs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey actually all operate together on the robot, and they just take turns in the seat,\u201d said McCracken. The robot at Victoria General has a dual-seat console, which helps in training surgeons.<\/p>\n
Last year, colorectal surgeon Dr. Sepehr Khorasani and urologist Dr. Mike Metcalfe did the first robotic pelvic \u201cexenteration,\u201d removal of the entire rectum, anus, prostate and bladder. The robot-assisted system reduced the patient\u2019s hospital stay to days rather than weeks.<\/p>\n
Since the spring, gynaecologic oncologist Dr. Mona Mazgani and general surgeons, including doctors Sepehr and Sohrab Khorasani, have been doing extensive oncological surgeries together using the robotic suite, whether it\u2019s for tackling two cancers or removal of several organs as a result of advanced or recurrent cancers invading multiple organs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do some of the most complicated surgeries in Canada now that we have the most diverse group of surgeons able to use the robot,\u201d said McCracken.<\/p>\n
Physicians are now being trained to perform robot-assisted surgeries for liver and pancreatic cancers, and potentially procedures where rare tumours must be removed from bones or soft tissues while preserving nearby nerves and blood vessels. \u201cThat\u2019s the vision for the next little while, to delve further into what we can do to cure cancers that aren\u2019t common,\u201d said McCracken.<\/p>\n
Greater Victoria physicians have already reached several milestones, including B.C.\u2019s first robotic-assisted emergency surgery and first robotic colectomy (removal of all or part of the large intestine).<\/p>\n
Most centres in Canada that have robotic surgery are using it primarily for urology, some for gynecology, others for thoracic surgery, but Victoria is among only a few centres in Canada doing major robot-assisted colorectal surgery, along with \u00adKingston, Toronto and Montreal.<\/p>\n
With the number of surgeons being trained in robotic \u00adsurgery in diverse areas, fellows and residents have been \u201ckind of fighting to get here,\u201d said McCracken.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re a standout program nationwide now. People are coming from all over the country to see what we\u2019re doing here. It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The da Vinci Xi robot-assisted surgical systems ring in at about $2 million each, and on average, each surgery costs roughly $2,000, given that some of the instruments with intricate moving parts, such as those in the surgical wrists, for instance, can only be used up to 20 times. There\u2019s also a maintenance contract.<\/p>\n
McCracken argues that it\u2019s just \u201cmarginally different\u201d than the cost of operating in other ways, but robotic surgery has \u201chands-down, the shortest recovery times in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faster discharges help clear hospital beds \u2014 which cost $2,000 to $4,000 a day, including staffing \u2014 for other patients and reduce cancelled surgeries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve demonstrated that since the inception of robotics for all surgeons, these numbers have considerably improved,\u201d said McCracken.<\/p>\n
Still, given that Victoria\u2019s two main hospitals using robotic technology struggle with over-capacity issues \u2014 Royal Jubilee was at 111 per cent in 2024 \u2014 it\u2019s a challenge for medical administrators to clearly show cost savings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe free up beds, but there\u2019s just so many patients in the hospital that somebody else just moves into them, and of course that\u2019s still an efficiency, but it\u2019s not something that can be easily measured in dollar amounts,\u201d said McCracken.<\/p>\n
In his last 75 surgeries, he said, roughly 70 patients were safely discharged in less than 24 hours. That helps prevent the \u201cswell\u201d of patients on the ward every week, said McCracken.<\/p>\n
Recent data for urology shows hospital stays are down by 70 per cent, and what had been three-to-four-day stays have dropped to less than 24 hours, said McCracken. He said other specialties are seeing \u00adsimilar benefits.<\/p>\n
With patients who have had robot-assisted surgery getting back to work quicker, they\u2019re not using as much employment insurance or taking potentially addictive narcotics after surgery, said McCracken. \u201cThere are all sorts of societal benefits to this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Sepehr Khorasani said that in the United States, where he did part of his training, robot-assisted surgical systems are considered the basic \u201cstandard of care\u201d because of the benefits to patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to realize is that, yes, you pay a lot of money up front, but you gain a lot back in the long term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Khorasani said patients not only spend less time in hospital, but they\u2019re not \u201cbouncing back to the emergency department, waiting for 12 hours to be seen, and then be readmitted and have an intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while the health authority saves thousands of dollars each day as a result of shortened stays in hospital, \u201cobviously, a price cannot be put on how important it is when your loved one gets back to life, to work, and can still be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Victoria Hospitals Foundation is already preparing for the third and final chapter of the It\u2019s Time campaign next month, focusing on cardiac, stroke and vascular care.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years, there was an assumption that the most advanced healthcare innovations would emerge only from Canada\u2019s largest centres,\u201d said foundation CEO Avery Brohman.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, health care leaders are paying attention to what is happening on Vancouver Island and looking to our community as an example of what can happen when philanthropy is deeply integrated into the advancement of care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Jeff McCracken hopes to meet with the health minister this fall to tout the benefits of technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-894485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}