Netcare's Christiaan Barnard has established a less invasive lung and heart procedures without breastbone splitting or rib cage spreading. Stock photo.In a first for the continent, a cardiothoracic robotic-assisted surgery programme has been established at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Hospital in Cape Town to provide less invasive alternatives for procedures involving the chest cavity, including lung cancer and cardiac surgery.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to establish this platform which will enable our cardiac and thoracic surgery colleagues across the country and elsewhere in the continent to provide robotic surgery as an option to their patients. This will allow more patients to receive state of the art, world class, evidence- based treatments,” Van der Merwe said.
The first patient to undergo a robotic assisted thoracic procedure in Africa was Etienne Nel, a former semi-professional electronic sports gamer.