First-in-US Robotic Liver Transplant at St. Louis Hospital
Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, Missouri) surgeons successfully transplanted a whole donor liver using robotic surgery at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital. According to reports from the St. Louis Dispatch and MedicalXpress, this is the first time a whole liver has been transplanted without using both open and robotic techniques. Robotic surgery has been used more commonly for partial-liver transplants.
While the procedure was done in May, this was just reported in the August 14th edition of MedicalXpress. The University and hospital have a longstanding collaborative relationship. The patient, a gentleman in his 60's reportedly was cleared to play golf one month following the procedure. Normally, open liver transplants take months of recovery.
