A Spanish hospital performed a lung transplant on Monday using groundbreaking new technology, using robots and a new channel that no longer cuts through bone, allowing surgeons to limit the incision to soft tissue for the first time.

Surgeons at Barcelona's Valld'Hebron Hospital used a four-armed robot called Da Vinci to cut through a small section of the patient's skin, fat and muscle to remove the damaged lung and pass it under the breastbone, above the diaphragm An eight-centimeter (three-inch) incision is made to insert a new lung.
 
The old method required a 30 cm incision. Although some hospitals are already using smaller incisions for lung transplants, this is the first time surgeons have been able to limit the incisions to soft tissue.

They say the new procedure is less painful for patients because the wound can be easily closed.
 
To introduce the new lungs, the organ is "deflated" in the operating room so that it can be accessed through tight incisions, said the surgeon in charge of the operation. As a part of the body, it has the advantage of being very flexible, and smaller cutouts were also made on the side of the ribs to accommodate the robot's arms and 3D cameras, without having to touch any of the ribs.
 
This pioneering procedure has so far only been used to treat lung cancer.

The operation was performed on a 65-year-old man who required a lung transplant due to pulmonary fibrosis.
 
Benefiting from this new technology, the patient stated postoperatively: "From the moment I regained consciousness and woke up from general anesthesia, I had zero pain."
 
Due to the small incision, the patient took only paracetamol after the operation. Traditional lung transplants generally require treatment with opioid pain relievers after the procedure.
 
Spain is the global leader in organ transplants, with an average of 7 donors and 15 transplants per day in 2022, according to the Spanish Ministry of Health.

surgery robot;

hospital robot;

clinical robot