Doctors at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai, has performed end to end gastric bypass surgery for the first time in Western India. This pioneering surgery was performed by Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala, Director, Department of General Surgery and Minimal Access Surgical Sciences at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital on Master Ayaan Hasan a 19-year-old who weighed 152 kg with a BMI of 72.3, sleep apnea, hypertension and was pre-diabetic.

Ayan had an excellent post-operative recovery and was discharged on the very next day, he has since lost 22 kg in the last two months, is off medication for hypertension and now sleeps much better.

Dr. Lakdawala has performed 25 Robotic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgeries in the last 8 weeks. These procedures were performed on the latest robot, the Da Vinci Xi by US-based Intuitive Surgical.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, is a metabolic procedure for sustained weight loss and resolution of Obesity induced co-morbidities, which involves creating a small pouch from the stomach and connecting the newly created pouch directly to the small intestine, thus excluding ingested food from a major portion of the stomach and the first part of the small intestine.

Commenting on this achievement Dr. Muffazal Lakdawala said “We are extremely glad to bring this unique end to end robotic solution for those struggling with morbid obesity to our country, as this will go a long way in having better patient outcomes thanks to more precision, flexibility, dexterity and enhanced vision of the robot. This will benefit a lot of people as India has got the third-largest number of people afflicted with obesity in the world, and the second-largest in terms of diabetes. These diseases not only shorten their lifespan but also increases their medical costs due to comorbidities.

While emphasising on the advantages of robotics for surgeons, Dr. Lakdawala said, “With the latest Da Vinci Xi technology, the surgeon can do the entire surgery by himself, which includes stapling, sealing and suturing. Apart from these advantages, it takes away surgical fatigue from the surgeon. I also believe that in the coming years, RAS technology will play a key role in training of surgeons further improving their skills with AI backed algorithms, thus leading to much better clinical outcomes for the patients .”