Angolan plane operated 11,000 km away for the first time in Africa

A cancer patient in Angola was operated on by a doctor in the United States using robotic surgery and is successfully recovering from the procedure this Thursday (19), in the first remote intervention carried out in Africa.

The prostatectomy – partial or complete ablation of the prostate – carried out on June 14 is the first operation to be performed at such a great distance between the patient and the doctor, the hospitals that organized the procedure said.

The surgical intervention was “successfully performed” by Vipul Patel, medical director of the Global Robotics Institute, which is part of Adveth Celebration Hospital in the US state of Florida.

“The procedure was performed over a distance of nearly 7,000 miles, making it the first telesurgery performed at this great distance,” AdventHealth Celebration hospital said in a statement Wednesday.

The Cardeal Dom Alexandre do Nascimento Hospital Complex (CHDC), in Luanda, where the patient underwent surgery, said that this was “the first remote surgery performed in Angola and on the African continent”.

A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, engineers and a member of Patel's staff were present at the ward in Luanda, CHDC said.

The operation “went well,” the director of the Angolan hospital, Carlos Alberto Masseca, told AFP.

Three days after the procedure, the patient, Fernando da Silva, 67, was able to return home.

According to Patel, the surgery is a “magnificent advancement not only technologically, but also for global health equity.”

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