Australia’s highest-volume robotics centre hits 10,000 surgeries

MedTech & Diagnostics News: When the da Vinci surgical robot was first commissioned at The Wesley Hospital in Brisbane in 2010, robotic surgery was still in its infancy, with only limited access to the cutting-edge technology nationwide.

At the time, international adoption of the technology was accelerating, particularly in the United States, where robotic prostatectomy was pioneered in Detroit.

Wesley urologists were among the first in the country to utilise robotic-assisted surgery, performing the hospital’s first robotic radical prostatectomy in January 2010.

Over the years, The Wesley has evolved into Australia’s highest-volume robotics centre, and in 2018, it earned accreditation as a Centre of Excellence in Robotic Surgery after a rigorous independent review by the Surgical Review Corporation.

Dr Geoff Coughlin, a Wesley urologist, first encountered robotic surgery 20 years ago while training in the UK and the US. He brought his expertise to Brisbane, where he has since become the nation’s most experienced and highest-volume robotic prostatectomy surgeon, performing more than 4,000 robotic procedures.

“Immediately I was attracted to the opportunity robotics provided to do very complex surgery minimally invasively and with finesse that I don’t think can be matched with other operative techniques,” Dr Coughlin explained.

“Minimally invasive surgery using the robot allows for complex surgery to be done with significant dexterity, generally making it safer and better surgery. The progression of robotics in urology has happened rapidly, and today it’s rare for a patient to have open surgery in the work that we do.”

Colorectal surgeon, Dr Carina Chow, shared a similar experience, though the transition to robotic surgery in her field took longer.

“When I started, there was no one doing robotic colorectal surgery in Australia and it was difficult to prove the benefits with so few runs on the board,” she said.

Despite Queensland’s reputation for pioneering minimally invasive colorectal surgery, Dr Chow recognised that some procedures still posed challenges. In 2013, she travelled to Korea to train in robotic surgery and performed her first cases at The Wesley later that year.

“Initially I used robotic surgery for selected cases only but as the technology, experience and availability grew, we were able to expand this to all aspects of colorectal surgery and are now able to do difficult cases minimally invasively without conversion,” she explained.

“I like the fact that when assisted by the robot I can see every fibre of every tissue and I can perform an extremely accurate operation as a result.”

In some cases, robotics has made less invasive surgery possible for patients who may have previously been deemed ineligible.

“In my specialty, this can include patients with a small pelvis, large prostate, or obesity. With reduced blood loss, there is less concern about operating on patients with a cardiac history, for example,” Dr Chow noted.

The hospital’s access to multiple robotic platforms also allows for greater collaboration among surgeons.

At The Wesley, where we have three robots and so many surgeons trained in robotic techniques, you can have multiple consoles and surgeons operating in the same room,” Dr Chow said.

“For instance, in cases of combined rectal and prostate cancer, I can operate alongside a urologist on another console. Or, for locally advanced cancers, multiple specialists can be involved simultaneously.”

Dr Coughlin echoed this sentiment, adding, “I think the big advances over the next decade will include constant improvements to the robots we use. I expect we’ll see them become even more dexterous and less invasive, allowing us to operate from a single cut or port.”

David Harper, UnitingCare Hospitals Group Executive, commended The Wesley’s specialists and robotics teams for the program’s impressive growth as it approaches the 10,000th robotic surgery.

“The expansion of our robotics program at The Wesley, and more recently across our UnitingCare group of hospitals, has opened the doors to a range of minimally invasive surgical options for our patients,” he said.

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