A surgical team recently performed the nation's first robot-assisted liver transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Aug. 14.
The procedure took place in May and was led by surgeons from St. Louis-based Washington University School of Medicine. It marked the first time a whole liver transplant was performed robotically in the U.S. "Previous robotic liver transplants involved transplanting partial livers from living donors, or performing part of the surgery robotically and the rest traditionally," the report said.
The robotic approach allowed for a much smaller incision (between 6 and 7 inches) than a traditional liver transplant, which typically requires a large incision and thus, a longer recovery. The typical recovery for an open liver transplant is two to three months.
The liver recipient who underwent the robotic procedure was cleared to get back to physical activity in one month.