Italy leads in robot surgery

(ANSA) - Rome, October 21 - Italy leads Europe in robot surgery and is well on the way to performing the bulk of its cancer operations with robots, experts said Tuesday.

Robot surgery was performed in 29 Italian hospitals last year compared to 18 French hospitals, 13 German ones and nine British ones.

Italy is second in this field only to the United States.

The high precision and wound-reducing accuracy guaranteed by robots is increasingly essential to cancer surgery, the national congress of the Italian Surgical Society was told.

''Robotic surgery permits operations of the utmost complexity with a mini-invasive approach, minimal blood loss and a swift and less painful recovery,'' said Luciano Casciola, head of surgery at Spoleto's San Matteo Hospital.

He said this had ''significant advantages'' for cancer patients who typically have to start chemotherapy as quickly as possible after surgery. There are also notable advantages in terms of lower stress for surgeons who sit down and look at monitors while they operate the robot's mini-scalpels.

''They get much less tired. There is a significant pay-off in terms of risk management,'' Casciola said.

One of the cutting-edge tools at the disposal of Italian cancer surgeons, Casciola observed, was the so-called CyberKnife, a robotic cutter with a tiny radiation gun incorporated.

The special knife enables cancer cells to be blasted in inaccessible parts of the body without harming the healthy cells that surround them.

Most brain and spine tumours will be removed in this way in the future, Casciola said.