Dr. Alexandre Mottrie, head of urology at OLV Hospital in Aalst, Belgium, performed the robotic prostatectomy. (Mottrie is also and CEO and founder of the Belgium-based ORSI Academy for training, R&D and data analysis for improving minimally invasive surgery best practices.)
Hugo received CE mark approval for urologic and gynecologic procedures in October 2021.
“Performing Europe’s very first procedure with the Hugo RAS system is a career highlight for me,” Mottrie said in a news release. “With more than two decades and 4,000 robotic-assisted surgery procedures under my belt, I am intimately aware of the barriers that have kept the benefits of surgical robotics from physicians, hospitals and patients. Now, I believe we are entering a new era filled with greater access and flexibility.”
Hugo combines wristed instruments, 3D visualization and Medtronic’s cloud-based surgical video capture and management solution, Touch Surgery Enterprise, to offer a multi-quadrant platform designed for a wide range of soft tissue procedures.
Medtronic announced the first urologic and gynecology procedures with Hugo in Latin America and Asia-Pacific over the past year, with the first patient procedure in Chile in June 2021. Clinical data from such procedures and cases, now to be conducted in Europe, will support regulatory submissions worldwide.
In addition to its CE mark, Hugo has a medical device license in Canada, and it also has Australian approval. It remains an investigational device that is not for sale in the U.S.
“This is an exciting and important moment for healthcare in Europe and we’re proud to share it with Dr. Mottrie and the team at OLV,” said Megan Rosengarten, president of Medtronic’s surgical robotics business. “Dr. Mottrie has left a meaningful mark on our program over the many years we’ve worked together, and now, through our partnership with OLV, Medtronic’s journey to bring the benefits of robotic-assisted surgery to more patients in Europe is well underway.”
