Connecting the Lung Through Small Incisions
Dr. Yury Peysakhovich, head of thoracic surgery at the Petah Tikva hospital, led the team. In the hospital’s account, reported by Israel National News and later The Jerusalem Post, surgeons used robotic instruments through small openings to connect the transplanted lung to blood vessels and airways.
Robotic surgery does not mean that a machine decides how to operate independently. Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Hospital explains that the surgeon controls the arms from a console while viewing the body’s interior through a camera. The change concerns surgical access and instruments, rather than transferring clinical responsibility to an autonomous system.
Why Pain Matters for Breathing
The conventional approach described in Beilinson’s account involves a broad chest opening and separation of the ribs. Pain from injury to the surrounding tissues can make deep breathing, coughing and clearing secretions more difficult. These functions matter during recovery from a lung transplant.
The less invasive approach aims to reduce damage to the chest wall. It does not turn transplantation into a minor procedure or eliminate its risks. Vall d’Hebron also explains that recipients need medication to suppress the immune system and prevent rejection, leaving infection an important concern in their care.
Preparing for an Emergency
Israel National News reported that preparations involved surgeons, anesthetists, perfusion staff, nurses, pulmonologists, intensive care professionals and the tissue typing laboratory. Robotic arms working inside the chest limit direct access to the patient, making advance planning for complications essential.
Dr. Shai Fein, who heads anesthesia and operating rooms, described preparations for ventilation, monitoring and maintaining circulatory stability. The team held a dedicated simulation, and the patient was connected to a heart and lung machine in advance as part of the reported precautions.
About a month earlier, Beilinson performed a transplant through two small incisions without a robot. The hospital said that experience helped prepare the team for the subsequent procedure. Exact dates for the two operations were not provided.
What Was Reported About Recovery
Dr. Dan Gorfil, head of the cardiothoracic surgery intensive care unit, said the patient recovered better than the team expected. According to his account, almost no pain medication beyond paracetamol was needed, contributing to shorter intensive care and hospital stays.
The reports did not provide hospitalization lengths, standardized pain scores or a comparison with similar patients. The result can therefore be described as a positive early experience reported by Beilinson, rather than proof of faster recovery for transplant recipients generally. The patient’s age, identity and underlying illness were not disclosed in these sources.
An Ambition for Wider Use
On April 17, 2023, Vall d’Hebron announced a fully robotic lung transplant using a new access route. Its account distinguished that procedure from earlier robotic assistance during part of a transplant in Los Angeles. Beilinson’s reported achievement is consequently an Israeli first, rather than a claim to have performed the world’s first robotic transplant.
Peysakhovich set out an ambition to make robotic transplantation without a broad chest opening standard practice within five years. That remains a professional goal. Progress toward it will need assessment over time, beyond the early recovery of the first patient described in the hospital’s reporting.
