surgery

Operation at Barcelona's Hospital Clínic on July 7 was first of its kind in Catalonia or Spain

3D technology reproduces patient's anatomy in glass pyramid, allowing team at Santa Creu i Sant Pau hospital to follow operation

Da Vinci Xi reduces patient’s average stay in hospital by one day

Average wait for surgery is 146 days, with over 26% of Catalan patients waiting for more than six months

Barcelona's Sant Pau hospital uses new minimally invasive technique that significantly reduces postoperative pain

The hospital has become the first public university center in Europe after creating a teaching center in the surgical area

This new technology, showcased on the third day of the industry trade fair, would connect experts to surgeons in the OR

Can Ruti introduces toy car instead of gurneys for patients under six

The Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, one of the pioneer hospitals worldwide in non-invasive surgery in children, is planning to use minimally invasive methods with 70 percent of its pediatric surgeries. This week various pediatric surgery specialists gathered in a congress at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital Campus to share their professional expertise. The Vall d’Hebron Hospital is one of the few hospitals capable of performing surgery on a newborn with a weight of less than 1.5 kilograms or on a 24 week-old fetus with spine bifida. Since the incorporation of Doctor Manuel López as Head of Services, pediatric laparoscopy has gotten a new boost. López has set the objective of performing the majority of the 2000 annual surgeries on children with innovative methods.

Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital, in Badalona, has operated a larynx cancer using Da Vinci robot. This pioneering technology, which was never been used in the Spanish State before, allows to extract the whole larynx through the mouth, without incisions. According to the hospital, this robotic surgery “is less aggressive for the patient and it guarantees a higher security and a quicker recovery”. Morever, the levels of blood waste and the recovery period are significantly reduced, as well as the possibilities of suffering from complications derivated from the operation. This intervention is part of a specific program of head and throat’s robotic surgery promoted by Germans Trias i Pujol.

Every day in every hospital in the world blood is needed. The only way to get it is from donations, since blood cannot be created artificially. Each altruist action may serve to help three different patients. In Catalonia, for the system to work optimally 1,000 donations a day would be needed but the average donation figure is lower. Everyone can donate if they weigh over 50kg, since a donation is 450ml of blood and a minimum weight is required. Men can do it four times a year and women three times. There are now various mobile units that travel throughout Catalonia to make donating more accessible to donors.

A team of surgeons at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in the Catalan capital successfully removed a tumour from a five year old child by first preparing and practicing the “highly complex” procedure on a 3D printed tumour. The child had neuroblastoma, a difficult cancer to extirpate because of the surrounding blood vessels and arteries. In such cases, testing the procedure in advance "is key" because it allows surgeons to study the most effective way of extracting the tumour without damaging other tissues, and to test the method before surgery. This has been possible thanks to the use of a 3D replica of the tumour.