S African surgeons perform country's first robotic-assisted living donor kidney transplant

Transcript

00:00South Africa has long led the way in medical innovation.

00:09Now it has achieved another first, a robot-assisted kidney transplant performed in the public sector.

00:16Surgeons here in Cape Town at Tigerburg Public Hospital have performed South Africa's first robotic living donor kidney transplant.

00:24The breakthrough not only marks a major step forward for transplant surgery in the country,

00:30but it also promises faster recovery and less pain for patients.

00:34The key is the robot itself, giving doctors enhanced precision, steadiness and vision inside the body.

00:41The vision that you have through the robot is 3D HD, but it's up close.

00:47You can get much closer to what you're working on than you would with your naked eye.

00:51So it makes it much more safe in my opinion and the margin of error becomes much smaller than it would be for traditional surgery.

00:59Dr. Duplessis took us inside the operating theatre demonstrating how the robot works

01:05and explaining the landmark procedure where a mother donated her kidney to her daughter in a complex and delicate surgery.

01:12Donating the kidney is a highly complex surgery because you not only remove the kidney as you would for a cancer,

01:19you have to remove the kidney but preserve the blood vessels and the ureter, the pipe going to the bladder,

01:25with its blood supply and you have to make sure that the blood vessels are at its full length.

01:30Thousands of South Africans are waiting for organ donations.

01:33Doctors say robotics could make each transplant safer and more efficient.

01:38There is a big need for more kidney donors, but in specifically government sector, we don't really have the capacity to do many more.

01:48But at least if we do it like this with a robot, the efficiency is so high that the ones that we can do can be done more effectively.

01:57For the past three years, Tigerburg Hospital and Stellenbosch University have trained public sector doctors in robotic surgery,

02:05ensuring the technology is not just for private care.

02:08The program could also serve as a training hub for surgeons from across Africa.

02:13We will definitely move forward to try and push the boundaries and see how much better and more effective and more efficient we can become.

02:22With a robot, efficiency and predictability is a big plus.

02:27This milestone doesn't just transform one family's future.

02:31It shows how cutting-edge technology is reshaping public healthcare, opening doors to advanced procedures that are accessible to everyone.