Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital makes history

Doctors at Jinnah Hospital have achieved a major breakthrough by performing robotic surgery to treat diabetes and obesity.

Robotic surgery for obesity and metabolic issues has been performed for the first time in the history of Pakistan.

Diabetic patients after undergoing this procedure will not need any insulin or medicine to control blood sugar levels, a professor who supervised the surgery said.

Professor Shahid Rasool said that successful robotic surgery for obesity and metabolic issues involved reducing the stomach size. It also reduced the size of large intestine with the view to speed up digestion.

The surgery, lasted an hour, was performed on an obese diabetic woman weighing 140kg.

Professor Rasool further shared the operation would help the patient to lose weight and reverse diabetes.

Patients, after the surgery, would no longer need medication for diabetes. The robotic surgery has proved effective in around 70 per cent similar cases.

Since Sept 2023, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center has performed 135 robotic surgeries, including urology, general surgeries and gynecology.

Pakistan is the first country among neighbouring countries to have robotic surgeries for metabolic issues.