Binh Dan Hospital in HCM City has successfully performed the country’s first robotic surgery on a liver cancer patient. (Photo: Binh Dan Hospital) HCM City (VNA) - Doctors at Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh Cityhave performed the country’s first robotic surgery on a liver cancer patient.
Doctors removed the left lobe ofthe liver, which contained a six-centimetre tumour, of a 59-year-old patientfrom the Mekong Delta province of Long An in late July, according to a hospitalpress release sent to the media on August 9.
Robotic surgery is a type ofminimally invasive surgery that uses smaller incisions than normal surgicalmethods. The method helps to protect the liver’s main blood vessel.
The use of a robot also helps toreduce pain, bleeding, infections and the length of hospital stay.
[Robots upgrade surgery quality for Vietnamese]
Dr Nguyen Dinh Song Huy, deputyhead of the oncology centre at Cho Ray Hospital, said the centre had seen anincrease in new incidences of liver cancer year-by-year, from 2,793 in 2010 to4,069 last year. Of the figure, the male-female ratio was 4.48 to one.
Most of the patients were aged 50to 60, while the highest number of cases were from the Mekong Delta region.
Huy said that hepatitis B and Cwere the main causes of liver cancer, with 91 percent of 24,091 patients from2010 to 2016 diagnosed with hepatitis. Forty-one percent of the cases weredetected at a late, incurable stage.
Since liver cancer often does notshow clinical symptoms, patients with hepatitis B and C should be tested forthe disease, according to Huy.
At a two-day conference on viralhepatitis B and C in Vietnam in late July in HCM City, Dr Nguyen Thu Anh of theGeneral Department of Preventive Medicine said that many patients in thecountry had difficulties in accessing diagnosis and treatment, partly due tolack of finance.
Around 3.22 million patients inthe country this year were diagnosed with hepatitis B, which may or may not betreated with drugs, depending on how high the viral load is or whether there iscirrhosis of the liver, according to Anh.
However, only 43,230 patientswith hepatitis B virus infection have been treated this year, she said.
Unlike hepatitis B, patientswith hepatitis C must receive drug therapies, which are expensive. Of the967,000 patients with hepatitis C in the country, only 74,000 have receivedtreatment this year.
Deaths from liver cancer totalled30,000 in 2015 and are expected to rise to 45,000 in 2030 if screening and lackof medical intervention continues.-VNA
Dr Nguyen Dinh Song Huy, deputyhead of the oncology centre at Cho Ray Hospital, said the centre had seen anincrease in new incidences of liver cancer year-by-year, from 2,793 in 2010 to4,069 last year. Of the figure, the male-female ratio was 4.48 to one.
Most of the patients were aged 50to 60, while the highest number of cases were from the Mekong Delta region.
Huy said that hepatitis B and Cwere the main causes of liver cancer, with 91 percent of 24,091 patients from2010 to 2016 diagnosed with hepatitis. Forty-one percent of the cases weredetected at a late, incurable stage.
Since liver cancer often does notshow clinical symptoms, patients with hepatitis B and C should be tested forthe disease, according to Huy.
At a two-day conference on viralhepatitis B and C in Vietnam in late July in HCM City, Dr Nguyen Thu Anh of theGeneral Department of Preventive Medicine said that many patients in thecountry had difficulties in accessing diagnosis and treatment, partly due tolack of finance.
Around 3.22 million patients inthe country this year were diagnosed with hepatitis B, which may or may not betreated with drugs, depending on how high the viral load is or whether there iscirrhosis of the liver, according to Anh.
However, only 43,230 patientswith hepatitis B virus infection have been treated this year, she said.
Unlike hepatitis B, patientswith hepatitis C must receive drug therapies, which are expensive. Of the967,000 patients with hepatitis C in the country, only 74,000 have receivedtreatment this year.
Deaths from liver cancer totalled30,000 in 2015 and are expected to rise to 45,000 in 2030 if screening and lackof medical intervention continues.-VNA
VNA
