More than 2,800 robotic surgeries have been performed by ULS São José since 2019 and the annual number of these interventions has increased fivefold in six years, the institution announced this Friday, November 7th, classifying itself as the “largest and most experienced” in the NHS in this technology.
ULS São José, in Lisbon, debuted the National Health Service’s first surgical robot on November 8, 2019 and, since then, has recorded an annual increase in the number of interventions carried out using this technology.
“Since the inauguration of its surgical robot, the first in the SNS (…), the São José Local Health Unit (ULS) has already carried out 2805 robotic surgeries, establishing itself as a national and international reference in the use of robotics in surgery”, states the institution in a note sent to the Lusa agency.
At this moment, ULS São José already has two surgical robots, used in the specialties of urology, colorectal, bariatric, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, endocrine, esophagogastric, thoracic, gynecological and pediatric surgery.
Analysis of annual data reveals “a marked increase” in the number of surgeries performed using robotics.
In 2020, 158 surgeries were performed, a number that increased to 257 in 2021, 392 in 2022, 471 in 2023 and 850 in 2024.
This year, until September 30, there were 618 robotic surgeries.
“These numbers place ULS São José at the forefront of robotics and reflect our commitment to innovation. We are the largest and most experienced robotics center in the National Health Service”, states the president of the Board of Directors of ULS São José, Rosa Valente de Matos.
The president of ULS also highlights “the benefits of this technique for the recovery of patients and also for the retention and motivation of professionals”.
Among the main advantages of robotic surgery are a higher quality of the surgical procedure, associated with less blood loss, less pain, faster recovery and better cosmetics.
On the other hand, with this method, the surgeon performs operations sitting, an ergonomically more suitable position, which significantly reduces physical discomfort during prolonged procedures.
“The most recent innovations in the area of robotics include the use of a single incision – “single port” – through which the instruments pass, ‘feedback’ of the force of the instruments in the surgeons’ hands, ‘machine learning’ for analyzing the surgical image, and augmented reality with superimposition of the real surgical image with that obtained by imaging for guided surgery”, says the institution.
ULS São José states that it has been a national and international pioneer in this area and exemplifies that in February 2024, for the first time in Europe, it carried out a liver transplant using robotic technology and, more recently, the first liver transplant in the country using two surgical robots simultaneously, one for the recipient and the other for the organ donor.