Turin, tumor compressing heart and lung, saved with robotic surgery

He had a tumor mass above the heart that also occupied a large part of the right chest, a 51-year-old saved by an operation performed at the Molinette of the Città della Salute in Turin with a mini-invisible robotic technique using an innovative access never used before in Italy, with three small incisions of a few millimeters at the abdominal level. The patient had been complaining for months of a weight at the level of the heart and a constant shortness of breath. The tests had shown a tumor mass of 10 x 10 centimeters that was compressing the heart, the aorta and the right lung. The new formation originated from the thymus, a gland located above the heart.

“Using an access under the sternum – explains Paraskevas Lyberis, who conducted the operation – and two small incisions under the ribs of about 8 mm, one on the right and one on the left, the surgical team was able to remove the bulky tumor mass. The challenge was to be able to remove the entire lesion without having to make any larger cuts on the chest. The incision at the abdominal level above the diaphragm is even less invasive and less painful than the standard access at the thoracic level, which is used in robotic thoracic interventions, and allows the removal of even large thoracic masses without using large thoracic incisions. This therefore implies better pain control in the post-operative period and an even shorter hospital stay, in the range of 1-2 days”.

“The possibility of performing a high number of interventions robotically – concludes Paraskevas Lyberis – allows us to use increasingly cutting-edge surgical techniques and new accesses aimed at ensuring ever less pain, combined with the ability to remove even large tumor masses in complete safety and with great precision, without damaging vital organs, such as the lungs or the heart”.