News from K S Hegde Hospital | Robotic Pancreatic Cancer Surgery performed at K S Hegde Hospital

In a major breakthrough doctors at K S Hegde Charitable Hospital have performed a successful Robotic Whipple Surgery for patient suffering from Pancreatic cancer. A 57-year-old patient was referred to K S Hegde Hospital with abdominal pain, jaundice and weight loss. He was admitted and evaluated by Dr.Chandrashekar Sorake, HOD, Medical Gastroenterology & Hepatology. He underwent CT Scan, Endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy and was diagnosed to have locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

     Management of advanced pancreatic cancer requires a multidisciplinary team of doctors. The patient was evaluated by doctors from Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology, Oncology, Radiology, Pathology and other allied departments. As the patient had locally advanced cancer it was decided to give chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumor before undertaking surgery. The patient received four cycles of chemotherapy under the expert guidance of Dr Vijith Shetty, Consultant Medical Oncologist. PET scan done after chemotherapy showed good response with reduction in size of pancreatic cancer.

    The patient was advised to undergo Whipple surgery which is a major surgery requiring removal of part of Pancreas, small intestine, bile duct & stomach. Routinely Whipple operation is done by open surgery and requires a large incision or cut in the belly. This may delay patient recovery and longer time to return to routine activities. As advanced Robotic surgery is available at K S Hegde Hospital the patient was offered the option of Robotic Assisted Whipple surgery which has advantage of small incisions, surgical precision and early recovery.