Belfast City Hospital gets new £1.5m robotic surgery system to help fight cancer

  • Belfast City Hospital has just installed a new £1.5m surgical robotic system and used it to successfully treat a case of prostate cancer, improving outcomes for patients.

    Being diagnosed with cancer is one of the worst things most of us can imagine happening, and the last thing you'd want to hear is that you won't be able to get treatment at home. That's the case currently for patients with prostate cancer in Belfast, who currently have to travel to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge for surgery and make a long trip home while still making a painful recovery.

    Belfast City Hospital is changing all that thanks to the installation of its new £1.5m Da Vinci robotic surgical system. This precision tool is controlled by a real surgeon and greatly increases their capabilities, allowing procedures to be completed with smaller incisions and less damage to surrounding tissue. Northern Ireland charity Men Against Cancer donated £200,000 towards the new equipment.

    In the case of removing a prostate tumor, the new robotics can reduce recovery times of patients from five days to three and will increase the chance of retaining erectile function. The Belfast Health Trust expects to perform about 100 of the procedures in Belfast each year, and the equipment can also be used to improve outcomes in liver and kidney cancer too.

    Source: BBC News

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