Surgical Center

Hiroyuki Fujimoto

Introduction

The Surgical Center deals with all kinds of malignant neoplasms. Our mission is to provide safe surgical care for patients (Safe Surgery Saves Lives). Several groups collaborate to ensure the best surgical care, consisting of anesthesiologists, surgeons from 18 oncology groups, nurses, and medical-technical staff with support staff from radiology, clinical laboratory and pharmacy.

Routine activities

During 2016, the Surgical Center supported 5,575 surgical cases and 4,923 general anesthesia surgical cases (Tables 1, 2), 212 (4.5%) cases increase in the general anesthesia cases over 2015 (Figure 1). Sentinel node navigation surgery in breast cancer, autonomic nerve preservation proximal gastrectomy with jejunal interposition in early gastric cancer, hepatectomy and pancreatectomy in patients with hepato-biliary and pancreatic diseases, and endoscopic resection under general anesthesia in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer are all unique treatments in our institution, and are occasionally performed in the Surgical Center.

The da Vinci Robotic Surgical System has been introduced to provide less invasive surgery for patients with prostate cancer and rectal cancer.

Table 1. Number of general anesthesia cases (2016)

Table 2. Total number of operations (2016)

Figure 1. Trend of operation cases (2010-2016)

The post-anesthesia care unit has been a part of the Surgical Center since 2015.

The multidisciplinary meeting started in 2014. The multidisciplinary team includes medical doctors, nurses, and medical engineers (MEs), and meet to plan the best surgical pathways during operations.

The Surgical Center staff work as part of a multidisciplinary team actively in planning the best utilization of operating rooms. Scheduling, equipment usage, and staffing in the 16 operating suites were evaluated to establish an optimal work flow, streamline room turnover, and improve start times.

A medical device nurse, who is engaged in equipment usage, has been assigned.

Education

All surgical oncology groups have their own training programs for their fellows with the support of the Surgical Center staff. Our center also provides virtual reality simulators to allow fellows to develop the skills used in laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery. About 55 foreign doctors have visited our surgical center.