Just a week ago, he was “biting his fingers in pain.” Doctor: Patients don’t know they can use it
We had the opportunity to watch a robotic operation to remove colon cancer. Such treatments are reimbursed in Poland from August 1.
– I want to go home – said two days after the operation Grzegorz Głaz, a patient who had a colon tumor removed thanks to the operation. – I feel good, nothing hurts – emphasized the 48-year-old man, who a week earlier, as he himself said, was literally biting his fingers from the pain caused by cancer.
He was diagnosed last year. He was initially treated in the UK, where he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “I went to the doctor because of blood in my stool. When I saw the image during the colonoscopy, I immediately knew it was cancer. It was a shock, such a collapse, especially since I have a ten-year-old son – he says.
He is one of the patients who were qualified for robotic surgery – in this case, removal of the tumor with resection of part of the colon. We could be in the operating room of Clinical Hospital No. 2 in Szczecin and observe closely what such a procedure looks like.
Surgeon: Like I’m inside
– This operation will be difficult – emphasized Krzysztof Kaseja, MD, PhD, head of the Clinical Center for Robotic Operations at the Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 2 of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin and operator of the da Vinci system in general surgery. As Dr. Kaseja explains, robotic operations of the large intestine are especially good for men. “Here we have very difficult access due to the anatomy. Men have a narrow pelvis, I compare it to a Coke bottle. The use of the robot gives us amazing opportunities to reach those hard-to-reach places – he says.
