“Robotic surgery is a computer-assisted surgery in which a surgeon controls hand movements of a robotic device through a console,” said Dr Narmada P Gupta of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the only place in India where robotic surgeries are performed.

The importance of robotic surgery was highlighted at the three-day annual conference of the Urology Society of India (East Zone) at the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan in the city, where a workshop on live laparoscopic and robotic urology operations from Guys Hospital, London, was organised on Friday.

“Our aim is to project the robotic surgery as the future of medical sciences. It has been proven that there are advantages of robotic surgeries over laparoscopic surgeries. But this concept is not very popular in eastern India,” said Dr A K Das of NRS Medical College and Hospital.

According to doctors, data from many medical centres indicate that surgeons are achieving equivalent or even better results using robotic laparoscopic interface compared with manual operations. They added that in surgeries performed through robotic interface, patients feel less pain and their recovery is faster.

Wristed instrumentation, tremor filtration and three-dimensional magnification are the special advantages of robotics over the conventional laparoscopic surgeries. “In robotic process, everything gets magnified by 30 to 40 per cent or more. Due to the advantage of three-dimensional view, complex and intricate operations become easy to handle,” said Dr K Pradhan of the Calcutta Urological Centre.

Experts believe that robotic applications are well-suited for urological surgeries, radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, and surgeries of kidney, adrenal gland and urinary bladder.