Houston Surgical Group's Dr. Manny Ayyar presents robotic surgical procedure at MDDC

Featured presenter at Multidisciplinary Digestive Disease Conference

On Friday, October 23rd, North Houston Surgical Associate Dr. Manny Ayyar was invited to present a case study at the Multidisciplinary Digestive Disease Conference hosted by the Houston Methodist Hospital. Like Dr. Amr and Dr. Leiva, his partners at the Houston Surgical Group, Dr. Ayyar performs both weight loss surgery and general surgery and specializes in laparoscopic techniques. Dr. Ayyar also specializes in robotic surgery and endocrine surgery, which are surgeries of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and pancreas, and he combined this expertise in robotic surgery and endocrine surgery for his presentation at the conference.

Robotic Whipple procedure for pancreatic cancer

Every surgical case at the Houston Surgical Group is of the utmost importance, but some of the most dire cases we see are pancreatic cancer cases. That's why we go to such great lengths to be trained on the most advanced, cutting-edge technologies and techniques for endocrine surgery. This includes the robotic Whipple procedure.

The robotic Whipple procedure takes the place of the traditional open Whipple procedure. The robotic Whipple procedure is the first major innovation in pancreatic surgery in 80 years. In a Whipple procedure, the surgeon removes the head of the pancreas, gallbladder, bile duct, small intestine, and sometimes a part of the stomach. In a traditional procedure the surgeon requires a lengthy incision to gain access to all of these organs. A robotic Whipple procedure, on the other hand, is minimally invasive. The surgeon uses a series of small incisions and a robotic surgical device to guide the surgical instruments with more precision than a human hand could ever achieve.

At the Multidisciplinary Digestive Disease Conference, Dr. Ayyar presented a robotic Whipple procedure case study from one of his patients.

Dr. Ayyar's expertise

Speaking to an audience of gastroenterologists, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and colorectal surgeons, Dr. Ayyar detailed the surgical procedure and provided a full overview of the pros and cons of the robotic Whipple procedure vs. the traditional open Whipple procedure. Benefits of the robotic surgery include increased accuracy, less pain for the patient, shorter hospital stays, quicker recovery times, minimized scarring, and less blood loss. Robotic Whipple surgery has also been shown to have a morbidity 12% lower than the morbidity associated with the open procedure.