Students Learn About State of the Art Surgery

At the end of October, six students from the College’s Gifted and Talented programme were invited to visit Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, for a tour of the operating theatres and a demonstration of the Da Vinci Si Robot.

Wexham Park Hospital is a world leader in robotic assisted surgery, and the Da Vinci Si Robot is the most advanced surgical robot in the UK. Operated by a surgeon, the machine performs minimally invasive surgery. The surgeon controls the robot by working at a separate console, moving the arms of the robot, which then operate on the patient. Because the surgery is so precise there are significant benefits for the patients, including a much shorter recovery time than open surgery. The robot can also be used to operate remotely on patients in different hospitals, and even in different countries.

The students met Mr Omer Karim, who is a leading prostatectomy surgeon based at Wexham Park. He gave a talk to the students and demonstrated how the robot works. The students were able to operate the machine and take part in a question and answer session with Mr Karim and his colleagues.

Tutor Denise Carroll said: ‘It was an excellent and very interesting day out for our students who are planning to study medicine at university.’