28-04-2025
Manitoba welcomes cutting-edge surgical robot
Manitoba's health care just got a high-tech upgrade with the debut of the province's first surgical robot, the da Vinci Xi, now operational at the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) in Winnipeg.
The $3.5 million da Vinci Xi, funded through the HSC Foundation's Operation Excellence campaign, has already been used for about 135 surgical cases at the HSC so far.
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Surgeons control the robot from a console moving its wristed instruments — which bend and rotate beyond — while viewing the surgical site in a magnified image. HSC foundation
'Acquiring Manitoba's first surgical robot is a major milestone for patient care,' said Jonathon Lyon, president and CEO of HSC Foundation. 'With the robot, patients will experience less pain, less blood loss, and lower risks of complications.'
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The machine is divided into three parts: the surgeon console, patient-side cart and the vision cart.
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The surgeon sits in the console to control the robot's arms and surgical instruments. The side cart, which is next to the patient, holds the robot's arms, surgical equipment and the camera. And the vision cart helps support the 3D high-definition vision system, allowing the surgeon to get a clear picture of the operational zone.
During the announcement, HSC shared the recovery journey of a 33-year-old construction worker who was diagnosed with lung cancer after coughing up blood in December.
'Because of the precision of the robot, we were able to completely remove his lung cancer by taking out a small section of a patient's lung,' said Dr. Gilly Akhtar-Danesh, a thoracic surgeon at the HSC. 'The patient was discharged the next morning'
Akhtar-Danesh added that the patient was able to return to work in under two weeks.
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HSC says that with robotic surgery, they're seeing a reduction in surgical complications, better post-surgery patient recovery and decreased surgical wait times.
The da Vinci Xi will be used for thoracic surgeries (lung and esophageal cancer procedures), gynecologic oncology cases and urologic surgeries.
