Surgeons at Royal Surrey break world record
Surgeons at the Royal Surrey are now world record holders.
Surgical teams carried out the most robot-assisted radical prostatectomies in a single day.
Twelve men, all with prostate cancer, were able to undergo the same procedure on the same day after a team of Trust experts developed a safe but efficient way to maximise the number of prostatectomies they can perform.
A prostatectomy is a surgical procedure for the partial or complete removal of the prostate.
Back in February the same team completed nine procedures in a day, which was a UK first and the equivalent of a week’s worth of patients in a day.
On Saturday 20 May, five surgeons and four theatre teams worked across three operating theatres to carry out the record breaking number of procedures as part of the Trust’s commitment to reducing waiting times for cancer patients.
Matthew Perry, Consultant Urological Surgeon and Clinical Director of Urology said:
“It is testament to the fantastic team that we have here in Guildford that we have been able to achieve this feat. It has involved an incredible amount of planning from many different departments."
One of the patients who benefitted from the high intensity theatre list was 68 year old David Retter from Winchester in Hampshire.
Retired father and grandfather David was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer after visiting his GP for a test that measures the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood:
“The NHS has been fantastic, I was expecting that I would have a long wait, but it has all happened really quickly.
“When you hear those words that you have cancer it is scary, but the speed that it has been dealt with has just been incredible.
“It is exciting to be part of something out of the ordinary.”