B'luru surgeon among top 3 winners in international robotic surgery

Bengaluru: Bengaluru-based Dr Sandeep Nayak was among the three surgeons from the US, India and Spain who won top honours in the ‘KS International Robotic Surgery Innovation competition’ by Michigan-based Robotic Surgery evangelist Vattikuti Foundation.

The three winners were chosen from 100 global entries from the specialities of Urology, Gynaecology, General Surgery, Hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery, Colorectal, Head & Neck, Paediatric, Cardiothoracic, and joint replacement surgeries. For ‘Robotic Infraclavicular Approach for Minimally Invasive Neck Dissection’ the second award went to Dr Nayak, Director, Surgical Oncology, Fortis Cancer Institute here.

”Dr. Nayak innovated a robotic technique to perform very major cancer surgery of the head and neck to clear the lymph nodes in the neck with quick patient recovery and minimal discomfort,” a Foundation statement said on Tuesday. The winning entry of Dr Jihad Kaouk, Department of Urology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA’s entry ‘Single Port Robot-Assisted Kidney Transplantation Extraperitoneal Approach’ was judged worthy of first award.

The third award went to a team of Dr Alberto Piana, Dr Paolo Verri, and Dr Alberto Breda of Oncology Urology and Kidney Transplant Surgery, Fundacio´ Puigvert, Barcelona, Spain for their entry of ‘3-D Augmented Reality Guided Robotic Assisted Kidney Transplantation’.

”As surgeons continue to innovate newer procedures in robotic surgery, the Vattikuti Foundation will continue to invest and make it accessible to other surgeons,” said the President of Vattikuti Foundation, Raj Vattikuti. The Foundation’s charter is to encourage excellence in robotic surgery by facilitating specialist surgeons to be trained to become accomplished robotic surgeons, it was stated.