Called the da Vinci Xi, the $5.5-million, surgeon controlled robot will join just two others in B.C. — Ontario has 17.
One way to treat cancer at the back of the tongue would be to break the patient’s jaw and perform surgery.
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The bone-breaking is necessary because a surgeon can’t get her or his hands inside the patient’s mouth otherwise.
For now, Fraser Health patients who have cancer at the back of the tongue have two choices: Get radiation treatment or travel to Vancouver General Hospital for robotic surgery, because it’s currently the only place in the Lower Mainland that offers it.
“A major advantage will be that patients in Fraser Health can get their treatment close to home once we can actually offer it, and in certain situations they can avoid the complications of chemo and radiotherapy.”
Less-intrusive surgery means far faster recovery times, freeing up hospital beds, he added.
Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria also has one of the machines, while Royal Columbian in New Westminster is planning on obtaining one, but for now there are only two in the province.
Contrast that to Alberta, which has four robotic surgery systems. Or Quebec, which has 10.
Ontario has 17.
The provincial government said as the number of residents in B.C. increases, more machines will be bought.
“As our population grows in B.C. comparable to other provinces, like Quebec and Ontario, and with this technology also helping to attract and retain top surgical talent, we expect to expand robotic surgery programs in years to come,” the Health Ministry said in an emailed statement.
Asked why it takes a hospital foundation’s fundraising efforts to acquire a da Vinci Xi, the ministry said it’s grateful to donors and hospital foundations.
“Hospital foundations supplement provincial funding to support specific hospital and regional needs such as priority equipment, staff education and wellness initiatives, research and facility enhancements.”
The health region has a network of nine health-care foundations that collectively raised $77 million last year, Fraser Health said in an email.
“Donations build upon government health-care funding to help support priority equipment, patient education, staff and medical staff wellness initiatives, research, facility enhancements, innovative technologies such as robotic surgical systems, and other projects in our hospitals and surrounding communities,” the health authority’s statement read.
“The Surrey Hospitals Foundation, together with the Surrey Memorial Hospital department of surgery, have been instrumental in advancing surgical technological advancement with the introduction of robotic surgery.
“This project has been physician-led, foundation-funded, and will enhance surgical care. It is not a Ministry of Health-led program.”
When the da Vinci Xi arrives, there won’t be a learning curve for Butskiy, because he trained on them while at medical school in the U.S.
“We’ve pushed and lobbied the Fraser Health Authority to get us a robot here at Surrey, and we’re finally successful,” he said. “I’m very excited about it, we serve about 1.8 million people in Fraser Health and we don’t have the robotics technology, which is quickly becoming the standard of care for certain forms of throat cancer.”
The surgeon then directs the robot’s tentacle-like arms to perform the surgery, while a third arm is tipped with a 3D camera to guide the procedure.
“Currently when you’re operating at the back of the throat you have a headlight, you’re looking through there and it’s a dark hole, you can’t get in there,” Butskiy said. “Or sometimes it’s around a corner, or it’s upside down, you can’t see where the cancer is.”
The robotic arms have more degrees of angulation than a human arm, meaning they can go places a human limb can’t.
“So I can actually operate upside down in a tight spot with a robot,” Butskiy said. “That’s a big advantage, we’re always operating in a very tight corridor, a very tight, dark hole in the human body where it’s hard to get to without cutting the jaw open and swinging it to the side.”
Butskiy said Canada lags behind the U.S., Europe and Asia when it comes to robotic surgeries, and that the lack of machines makes it hard to recruit newly graduated specialty surgeons.
“I trained in the U.S. to learn how to use the robot and when I came here I couldn’t use my skills,” he said. “If someone has trained as a head- and neck-cancer surgeon, they want to use the robot, they want to use the skills they’ve learned, and if you don’t have that you cannot attract top talents to help patients in our province.”
Faster and less-invasive surgeries will mean more surgeries performed and more hospital beds available because recovery times will be so much faster, he said.
Surrey Memorial has 70 surgeons operating in 10 areas, and already handles some of the most complex medical cases across the Lower Mainland, Nicole Robson, president and CEO of the foundation, said.
“I’d say the da Vinci Xi is a strategic investment,” she said. “It hits more than an isolated need, it’s a domino effect of investment.
“It also allows us to elevate our training … and to attract and retain talent.”