I was privileged to attend the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery of Great Britain and Ireland (AUGIS), Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Glasgow at the SEC in October this year. While there I presented my abstract titled “Outcomes of Robotic Assisted Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeries” in an oral presentation.
Robotic assisted surgeries (RAS) promise a major improvement in the success and safety of minimally invasive (laparoscopic) surgeries, as they can improve dexterity, decrease incision sizes and ease surgeon fatigue as surgeons may sit during procedures. These improvements may result in benefits such as reduced patient blood loss, reduced rate of conversion to open surgery and reduced hospital stays. The advantages of RAS are well characterised for specific surgical specialties such as urology and colorectal, however the evidence base for other disciplines for example Upper GI is still evolving and the cost vs benefit of RAS vs traditional approaches must be studied.
I completed this project following my 4th year placement in the general surgery team. The project involved the collating and review of electronic records for patients who have had robotic surgery for an upper gastrointestinal (GI) pathology since the service began in 2021. We derived outcomes such as average length of hospital stay, conversion to open surgery rate and complication rate from the raw data.
My project aimed to give a holistic and real-world look at the implementation of RAS at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and showed that generally, RAS has been safely introduced and become part of routine practice at this hospital. This work identified that more information is needed to really assess the benefits of RAS over traditional approaches and work like mine could be taken further to become more of a retrospective cohort study to establish this difference.
Aside from my own presentation, I had the opportunity to listen to a variety of talks by other visiting medical students and experts in general surgery. These presentations widely broadened my medical awareness, specifically in topics such as surgical environmentalism and sustainability, and the prevalence of pancreatic cancer and the work going on to improve its diagnosis and advance prognostication. Additionally, it gave me the chance to network with those at the forefront of general surgery in the UK and other like-minded medical students who in the future I hope to collaborate with on further projects.
I’m grateful to my supervisor Dr Campbell Macleod who closely supported me throughout the project and the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary General Surgery Department for facilitating this work. I’m passionate about surgery and have an interest in general surgery which I hope to develop as I advance in my career.
