A medical marvel was witnessed in Hyderabad as a woman underwent a surgery performed by a doctor 3,900 kilometres away from her in China's Wuhan.
The rare but successful surgery was performed by Indian urologist Dr Syed Mohammad Ghouse, a senior urologist at Hyderabad's Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology (AINU) who was in Wuhan at the time.
The 57-year-old woman, who was diagnosed with ureteric obstruction, underwent a robotics-assisted tele-surgery from Wuhan, and a video of the procedure was shared by news agency PTI.
Dr Ghouse was in Wuhan at the time to attend a conference, but that didn't stop him from conducting the surgery.
A human aide was placed next to the patient in Hyderabad for efficient communication and assistance in need of emergencies.
The surgery went smoothly and finished in 90 minutes, PTI reported.
"It was basically a ureteric reimplantation that was contemplated for a patient who got a ureteric obstruction. What is ureteric obstruction? It is a tube which connects kidney to the urinary bladder and this tube was blocked for this particular patient," Dr Ghouse, who is also the Director of Robotic and Minimal Access Urological Surgery at AINU Hyderabad, said.
"This blocked tube was freshly attached to the bladder which is known as ureteric reimplantation. So, this we regularly do in our operation theatre with the robot and console by the side of the patient, but this was extended to Wuhan, because I was called for a conference there ,and there were 4-5 other surgeons, who had done tele-surgery from there to their own countries. I have done from there to this patient and it was done successfully. The patient went home," Dr Ghouse added.
This isn't the first instance of medicine and robotics colliding to open the option of remote surgeries.
Dr Mohit Bhandari, a leading bariatric metabolic surgeon in India, had performed the world's first transcontinental bariatric surgery from Strasbourg (France) to Indore back in July 2025, as reported by PTI.
He spoke out in favour of the advantage that robotic surgeries provide in diversifying access to healthcare across metropolitans into smaller cities and villages.
"Robotic surgery is poised to fundamentally change how advanced surgical care is delivered beyond metro cities. Traditionally, high-end procedures have been concentrated in tertiary urban centres, but three parallel shifts will drive decentralisation," Dr Bhandari said on the sidelines of the recently concluded 3rd edition of the Global Robotic Surgery Conference in Delhi from April 9-12.
