Cancer patient from Ipswich undergoes first robot-assisted double operation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital

A cancer patient who underwent the first robot-assisted double operation at a hospital said he was blown away by how smoothly his surgery went.

Philip Greene, of Ipswich, was the first patient at Addenbrooke’s Hospital to have a robot-assisted joint bowel and liver operation after colon cancer spread to his liver.

The 69-year-old former field service engineer agreed to the operation on April 2, which involved keyhole-type surgery rather than open surgery.

Philip said he could not believe how smoothly his surgery had gone, how little pain he was in afterwards, and that he was allowed home just three days later.

“One minute the anaesthetist was explaining I’d soon drift off, and the next I was waking up in recovery and looking at a chap in the bed opposite,” he said.

“It was like a win-win. The surgeons now know they can do the procedure and I am out of hospital and doing well.

“I can see how this will benefit other people in the future and how it could be applied to other kinds of surgeries.”

“Purely going by my experience I would say that if you need surgical interventions then this kind of doubling up technique is good because it saves two separate operations and means less time in hospital.

“The team at Addenbrooke’s were absolutely marvellous and made me feel very relaxed in the theatre.”

Philip had endured three months of gruelling chemotherapy treatment at his local hospital, aimed at shrinking the tumour, which had been diagnosed after a routine stool test exposed suspicious results.

When he was chosen for the pioneering surgery at Addenbrooke’s which used a Da Vinci robot, Philip said he hadn’t felt apprehensive, or lucky, but was pleased he could help clinicians progress new techniques.

On the other hand, his partner Jan Cobb was ‘petrified’, so it was a relief for her when he came around from his operation, which left him with seven small puncture wounds, rather than two large scars.

The complex dual operation was carried out by a team of colorectal and hepatobiliary surgeons led by Siong-Seng Liau, chair of the trust’s Robotic Surgery Steering Group (RUG) and Michael Powar, consultant colorectal and robotic surgeon.

Mr Liau said: “Surgery of this sort would normally be completed in two procedures on two separate days and involve two periods in hospital totalling up to seven to ten days.

“This is the first time we have done this kind of double robotic surgery procedure, which is extremely rare elsewhere in the country and we are delighted it was such a success.

“We are exploring how this technique could be applied to other surgeries”.

Mr Powar added: “This is a significant advancement in personalised cancer care for our patients by minimising trauma, reducing complications and enhancing recovery.”

Mr Greene’s operation comes only months after Addenbrooke’s carried out a record ten gall bladder operations in a single robot-assisted ‘Super Sunday’.

The hospital has three robots, two da Vincis, from Intuitive, and one Versius, from CMR Surgical.

Together they help across surgical specialities including ears, nose and throat (ENT); gynaecology; gynae-oncology; hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB); colorectal; urology; upper gastrointestinal, and benign gynaecological.