With the support of EU-funding, the citizens of Poznan, a city in western Poland, can now benefit from the state-of-the-art Da Vinci robotic surgical system.
Poland implements robotic surgical procedures for cancer treatment
- 17 June 2020
Advances in diagnostics have given us an opportunity to provide more precise treatment planning for complex diseases. Surgery remains a mainstay approach for physicians treating diseases, and robotic surgery gives us what we need to improve efficacy and decrease the invasiveness of our treatment.
The Da Vinci surgical system is one of the most technologically advanced robotic surgery systems in the world. Offering unprecedented precision, low invasiveness, and an intuitive user interface, the system allows surgeons to perform complex surgical procedures. Seated at a control module, they remotely control several very precise, flexible, robotic arms. The system has been on the market for several years, and the number of minimally invasive surgeries performed by Da Vinci continues to increase worldwide.
Now, thanks to the support of EU-funding, a cancer centre in Poznan, Poland is equipped with the system. As a result, patients have access to advanced, minimally invasive robotic surgery that is proven to be more effective than laparoscopic and other types of traditional surgeries.
A minimally invasive option
The new Da Vinci system is in Poznan’s Skłodowskiej-Curie’ Greater Poland Cancer Centre (GPCC). The GPCC is the region’s largest surgical oncology centre, serving a population of over 3.5 million and performing nearly 6 000 surgical procedures every year – including 1 500 early stage tumour surgeries. The centre employs a team of highly specialised surgeons, a prerequisite for using the Da Vinci system.
The Da Vinci system is primarily used to treat patients with ‘difficult tumours’. These typically include patients needing complicated open surgeries, which, due to technical limitations, are rarely done in a minimally invasive manner.
Having a Da Vinci system allows the GPCC to offer a minimally invasive alternative for such procedures. This positions the GPCC to be a more competitive player, not only in Poland, but regionally as well. This will also benefit the local economy.
Furthermore, because the Da Vinci system uses less equipment and energy than traditional procedures, it helps the GPCC reduce its environmental footprint.
Benefiting patients, and surgeons
At the time of purchase, the GPCC unit was the third Da Vinci system in Poland. The other two are in Wroclaw and Torun. According to surgeons, using the Da Vinci system helps shorten hospital stays and recovery times and reduces the number of drugs (including chemotherapy), a patient has to take.
As a result of the system’s precision, the number of post-surgical complications also decreases, as does the need for psychological care. All of this results in a better quality of life for the patient.
In addition to these patient-centric benefits, Da Vinci benefits the surgeon. By improving ergonomics, performing a surgery is less tiring, allowing surgeons to perform more procedures in day.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Da Vinci Surgical System” is EUR 3 245 124 (PLN 13 955 920), with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 2 726 359 (PLN 11 730 000) through the “Wielkopolskie Voivodeship” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Research, technological development, and innovation”.