A diseased kidney has been surgically extracted using a minimally invasive technique that utilizes 3D robotics, at the Henry Ford Hospital, the first surgery of its kind in Michigan.

About 55,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer every year. Treatment options, most commonly, involve open surgery with an incision approximately one foot (300 mm) long. Sometimes it is necessary to remove a rib and divert muscle in order to remove the kidney. This is associated with very long recovery times, including a week-long hospital stay and up to two months total recovery.

The name of the novel procedure is, aptly, Single Incision Robotic Surgery (SIRS,)  as it is so minimally invasive. Many potential benefits come from using this therapy, including improved cosmetic damage, a faster recovery time, less scarring, and less blood loss. Dr. Craig Rogers, M.D., Henry Ford’s director of robotic renal surgery, commented on the procedure: “We made several improvements in the technique that could allow us to perform this type of procedure routinely.”

Ravaged by four separate tumors, the kidney was removed in an incision approximately three inches (76 mm) long near the belly-button of the patient, who was 50 years old. The complex robotic surgery lasted about 2.5 hours. Dr. Rogers performed the surgery last week using the da Vinci Surgical System, which has many applications outside the kidney, including partial and complete removal of diseased prostates. This successful, innovative procedure has come as Henry Ford establishes itself as the foremost robot-assisted facility in the world for prostate cancer surgery, of which 4,000 have been performed there since 2001.

In this SIRS procedure, the surgeon inserts the robotic arms through the incision near the belly button, as he sites nearby at a machine controlling the robot. “I control every movement made by the robotic arms,” Rogers states. “The robotic instruments are like having my hands inside the body.” Under this control, within the small incision, the robot inflates the abdomen, and moves the large intestine to one side in order to reach the kidney. After restricting the vein that takes blood to and from the kidney, he detatches the kidney, then removes it.

He and his colleagues have studied robotic surgery options for small kidney tumors, which preserve a large portion of the kidney thus shortening recovery time. However, they are not practical for those with large tumors. “We traditionally try to save the kidney for smaller tumors, performing a robotic partial nephrectomy”, says Dr. Rogers. “For larger tumors, however, patients would get a very large incision on their side. Now, we can remove kidneys with cancer through a single three- inch incision near the patient’s belly button.” He continues: “I think this is going to be a big advance for having to remove the entire kidney because of large kidney tumors. This could be a great improvement over traditional open and laparoscopic surgeries.”Doctors at Henry Ford have completed over 130 robotic kidney surgeries using SIRS.

SIRS nephrectomy is an option for other patients, including people with nonfunctioning kidneys for other reasons, such as blockage, stones, or certain congenital abnormalities.

Dr. Rogers expressed optimism for this potential new treatment: “We think we’ll see the same advantages with robotic kidney surgery as we have with robotic prostatectomy.”

For more information about Henry Ford, please go to http://www.henryfordhealth.org/.

Written by Anna Sophia McKenney