Al-Fakih Hospital in Al-Zahrani, South of Lebanon, has successfully conducted a first operation of its kind in Lebanon to restore the cartilage of a patient’s knee with the “Robotic Surgery” technique, using a robotic arm for increased accuracy and efficiency.
The robotic surgery was performed by Dr. Bilal Obaid, a specialist in orthopedics and joints and advanced technologies, on the patient Bilal Ali Haidar who was “suffering from pain in the joints of the knees as a result of dehydration in it.”
The patient Haidar told Al Mustaqbal Web: “I could not get up the stairs, and I avoided going to a doctor and undergoing an operation because I knew that it rarely worked. When I heard about Professor Bilal Obaid, I decided to try and go to him. So he told me about new technologies called robot, ozone, and plasma….”
A press conference was held by the hospital’s family and owner, Abdullah Fakih, upon the success of this unique surgery, and with the participation of Dr. Obaid and Adnan Al-Hallaq, the representative of the Turquoise company that manufactured the robot.
Dr. Obaid explained that the restoration process of the knee joint is usually done without a robot, however, the device helped significantly as it takes orders directly from them, the operating surgeons, and comes with many benefits.
“One of its benefits is that it speeds up the process and reduces human medical errors and patient problems after the operation in terms of infections or others,” he further explained.
On the importance of introducing modern technologies in surgeries, Dr. Obaid stressed: “The reality that we live in Lebanon should not prevent us from keeping pace with modern technologies, and our people in Lebanon deserve to benefit from this development taking place in this field.”
However, there is a chief problem these doctors face in their attempts to “keeping pace” with such advanced technologies. The Lebanese authorities don’t cover the cost, as the doctor revealed.
Dr. Obaid elaborated that the guarantor is a “social security or ministry” and “everything new takes time until it is covered.”
He expressed his hope that the waiting period for cost coverage will not be prolonged so that patients don’t bear the burdens incurred.
