The company reported two world-first robotic cardiac telesurgeries in just two days. Its Mantra 3 system remotely connected the SS Innovations headquarters in Gurugram, India, with Manipal Hospital in Jaipur, India. The distance between the robot and the hospital spanned nearly 180 miles (286 kilometers).
SS Innovations says the milestone “opens the door” to advanced, remote surgical technology becoming a key component of healthcare.
Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, the company’s founder, chair and CEO, led the surgical team in the first telesurgery procedure. The team performed a remotely conducted, robotic-assisted internal mammary artery harvesting. This procedure took just 58 minutes.
The second surgery — a robotic beating heart totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB), was performed via telesurgery. It took place under the same collaboration between Srivastava and Dr. Lalit Malik, chief of cardiac surgery at Manipal Hospital. Both surgeries highlighted teamwork across long distances, SS Innovations says.
Srivastava says that, for a country like India with a rural population and healthcare disparities, the innovation could prove “transformative.”
“By enabling telesurgery, we can bridge gaps in access to medical expertise and deliver the highest standard of care, regardless of geographical barriers,” said Srivastava. “Our goal has always been to make advanced surgical care affordable and accessible, and telesurgery now allows us to extend the reach of skilled surgeons to every corner of our nation, fundamentally changing the way healthcare is delivered.”
More about SS Innovations and the Mantra surgical robot platform
SS Innovations develops the Mantra platform of surgical robots, with the latest version coming in the form of its Mantra 3. The company launched Mantra 3 earlier this year and initiated the regulatory process in the U.S. and Europe. It hopes for approvals in the latter half of 2025.
Mantra 3 provides capabilities for multi-specialty usage, including in cardiothoracic, head and neck, gynecology, urology, and general surgery.
The company also has the support of a big name in surgical robotics — Dr. Frederic Moll. In September, SS Innovations appointed Moll to its board of directors, naming him vice chair.
Moll, the founder of surgical robotics leader Intuitive Surgical, brings decades of experience to the board at SS Innovations. Labeled the “father of surgical robotics” by SS Innovations, he co-founded Intuitive in the 1990s and oversaw its development and commercialization of the leading da Vinci system.
With the latest development at SS Innovations, Moll said it highlights “how far we have come since the inception of surgical robotics more than 20 years ago.”
“I believe that SS Innovations has seized the opportunity, to not only develop the next generation of a surgical robotic system, but to also push the envelope of just what was dreamed of more than 20 years ago, achieving a successful demonstration of telesurgery coupled along with a highly complex cardiac surgical procedure,” Moll said. “With this achievement, I have no doubt that certainly more opportunities will present themselves as we have now entered into a new paradigm shift towards surgery and how we will soon approach it.”
