RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre has performed what it described as the world’s first series of robot-controlled, single-port liver resections on living donors, which it said marks a significant advancement in organ transplantation.
A single-port liver resection is a minimally invasive surgery to remove part of the liver. The procedures carried out by the Saudi hospital involved a single incision of no more than 3.5 centimeters, instead of the several incisions typically required in conventional robotic surgery of this kind. This new approach reduces surgical pain and speeds up recovery, while maintaining high safety standards.
The benefits to donor safety are particularly significant, given that living donors are healthy individuals voluntarily undergoing surgery to help others.
The hospital said the procedures, carried out on six donors, resulted in minimal blood loss, no complications, low levels of pain, and the donors were discharged within two or three days.
The technique is also expected to improve outcomes for pediatric transplants, medical authorities say, because it is well-suited for removal of the left lateral segment of the liver (representing about 20 percent of total liver volume) while minimizing the surgical burden on donors.
