First robotic liver transplant in U.S. successful

Transplant surgeon Adil Khan, MD, controls the surgical robot. Image source: Washington University in St. Louis

According to the official website of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a surgical team from the hospital completed the first robotic liver transplant in the United States in May this year. One month after the operation, the patient not only walked freely, but also recovered a certain amount of exercise ability. This success means the benefits of minimally invasive robotic surgery extend to liver transplantation, allowing for smaller incisions, less pain and faster recovery, with the precision required for one of the most challenging abdominal surgeries.

Most transplant surgeries, whether performed laparoscopically or robotically, are too complex to use minimally invasive approaches, and liver transplants are particularly challenging. Diseased livers tend to bleed excessively during surgical removal, and connecting the new liver to the patient's circulatory system requires the delicate stitching together of several tiny blood vessels.

This robotic surgery is a minimally invasive surgery. The surgeon maintains full control of the robotic tool and uses joystick-like controls to perform the procedure remotely, typically more than a meter away from the patient. The high-resolution camera provides a magnified 3D view of the surgical site on a large monitor. High-tech instruments allow for very accurate, delicate operations that are impossible to accomplish using traditional techniques.

In this robotic liver transplant, the surgeon operated through several keyhole-sized incisions of approximately 1 cm and made a vertical incision of approximately 15 cm within the abdominal muscles to remove the diseased organ and A new liver, about the size of a football, is placed inside the abdomen. This incision is much smaller than a traditional incision and does not require cutting of abdominal muscles, allowing patients to heal faster.

The robotic liver transplant took more than eight hours, which was longer but within the expected time range of a traditional open liver transplant.

In 2021, a South Korean team reported the world's first robotic liver transplant. But the operation at that time only transplanted half of the liver. This time the research team stated that they have performed a complete robotic liver transplant for the first time.