Guyana performs world’s longest remote robotic heart surgery across 20,000 km to India

Guyana has marked a historic milestone in global medical history by successfully performing the world's longest-distance robotic cardiac telesurgery in the history of mankind. The surgery covered a distance of approximately 20,000 kilometres from Guyana to India via fibre-optic cable connectivity.

At 6:00 AM, world-renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Sudhir Srivastava, Founder of SS Innovations, remotely performed a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft on a patient in India while operating from Guyana using the SSI Mantra 3 robotic surgical system.

The lead surgeon performed the surgery from Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), using the advanced SSI Mantra 3 Robotic surgical system which was developed by SS Innovations and the technology includes high-speed connectivity, 3D Visualisation and Precision Robotic Arms. The procedure in India was supported onsite majorly by Dr. Lalit Malik and Dr. Mohit Bhandari and they also provided critical bedside assistance for the patient in India.

The surgery was successfully performed with the support of local healthcare workers from Guyana along with a team in India, with Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, who led it all as the lead pioneer surgeon from Guyana. He sat at the console in Guyana and remotely operated the CABG surgery which is commonly known as heart bypass surgery, on the patient in India.

During the post-surgery press conference, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali stated “We have leaped to 2050 and beyond.” He presented the technology used as “Mantra Freedom 60” in honor of the country's independence milestone, renaming it from “SSI Mantra 3 Robotic Surgical System.”

The president's vision during the press conference focused  on modernizing the healthcare system and reducing the need for patients to travel overseas for complex medical care and positioning the country as a competitive player in medical innovations, globally.

The event is widely recognized as “nation’s first”, which also gave Guyana the global recognition in modern medicine technology.