HMC Women’s Hospital to begin robotic surgery soon

LANI ROSE R DIZON

DOHA HAMAD Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Women’s Hospital will introduce robotic surgery at its gynaecology department in the next two months.

Once in place, Qatar will become the second country in the region to have the technology available in a women’s health facility, an official has said.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Dr Thomas Bossmar, director of gynaecology at the HMC Women’s Hospital said the robotic surgery will be used to treat women suffering from fibroid tumours, which is prevalent among about 20 percent of the women population in Qatar.

He said: “Robotic surgery, which is a development of laparoscopic surgery, will be used to treat all gynaecological problems such as fibroids, infertility, benign hysterectomy, gynaecological malignancies and advance endometriosis (disease causing infertility and pelvic pain in women) among others.

“Right now we’re under intensive training with a dedicated robotic team of doctors and nurses. In the next two months, we should be ready for live robotic surgery.” According to him, at the beginning, the department will share robotic surgery systems with the Hamad General Hospital before having its own dedicated robotic facility when it moves to the new Women’s Hospital, which is expected to open at the Hamad Medical City in the coming years.

He said robotic surgery was a more precise minimally invasive procedure with lesser complications for the patient and better ergonomy for the surgeon compared to the traditional laparoscopic surgery.

Bossmar added that about 450 major gynaecological procedures and more than 1,000 minor cases are conducted mostly through traditional laparoscopic surgeries at the Women’s Hospital each year.

“It is expected that by the time we get the robotic surgery in place, we will hopefully be able to perform up to 50 surgeries annually. It can be increased depending on the availability of the robotic system,” he said.

The new technique, according to Bossmar, has already been proven to be effective in treating fibroid tumours, which are common among the Middle Eastern, African and Caucasian women without the risk of recurrence.

“The system is also particularly good for women who would not want to have open cuts on their abdomen and have huge scars left behind after surgeries,” Bossmar said.

Speaking about other expansion plans for the department, Bossmar said that apart from developing more specialised out-patient clinics, the department was also planning to create a daycare- like profile for the patients.

“For example a miscarriage patient will only come to the department to get her procedures done and then go home the same day. Currently, most of the inpatient admissions are those in that category. It is not necessary for the patient to stay here.

“They will benefit more if the process becomes a daycare rather than a long-time hospital admission for such a case. That also goes for traditional laparoscopy, sterilisation or minor laparoscopy, which are suitable for daycare procedure. We hope that becomes a single unit,” he added.

The Women’s Hospital, which sees up to 18,000 deliveries annually, is also in the process of improving its residency programme.

“This is one of the largest gynaecological facilities in the world. We have about 122 doctors, including residents.

With the idea of the new Women’s Hospital coming up in a couple of years, we need to start preparing for that right now,” Bossmar added.