A cancer patient has had her uterus and colon removed by robots in a pioneering surgery as technology improves.
Christine Lockton
A cancer patient had a hysterectomy and part of her colon removed at the same time in pioneering surgery performed by robots.
Christine Lockton, 63, from Croydon, underwent a procedure that saw surgeons sitting at opposite ends of a robotic console while they performed the operation.
The 'arms' of the robot, known as the da Vinci Xi console, allow doctors to make tiny movements while removing 'all natural human tremor'. The 'hands' are able to rotate 360 degrees, enabling them to access hard-to-reach tumours.
Surgeons sat at opposite ends of a robotic console while they performed the operation
Surgeon Shahnawaz Rasheed, who co-led the operation at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, said: 'The precision of surgery, we think, is much higher. Because of that, the impact on the patient should be less.
'So we can do the same operation in terms of the removal of the cancer, but have less of a trauma to the patient.'
The multidisciplinary approach - carrying out colorectal and gynaecological surgery at the same time - while using robotics, had never previously been performed on the NHS.
In the future, the procedure may be rolled out across other NHS hospitals with the correct technology on a case-by-case basis, according to a Royal Marsden spokesperson.