An Indian surgeon performed a robotic gastrojejunostomy on a patient in Indore from a console in Perth, Australia, from a distance of over 10,000 kilometres, using India's indigenous SSI Mantra surgical robotic system. (Photo: Special arrangement)

Indian doctor in Australia performs surgery on patient 10,000 km away in Indore

An Indian surgeon in Perth, Australia, performed complex robotic surgery on a patient in Indore, India, across 10,000 kilometres using India's own SSI Mantra robotic system.

by · India Today

In Short

  • Indian surgeon operated on a patient located 10,000 kilometres away.
  • Signal travelled from Perth to Indore in under 150 milliseconds.
  • SSI Mantra robot achieved 0.1 mm surgical precision throughout procedure.

An Indian bariatric surgeon sat in Perth, Australia, and operated on a patient lying in an operating theatre in Indore, India. The distance between them: over 10,000 kilometres.

This is not science fiction. It happened in May 2026.

WHAT SURGERY DID THE INDIAN DOCTOR PERFORM FROM AUSTRALIA?

Dr Mohit Bhandari, an Indian bariatric surgeon, one who conducts weight-loss surgeries, performed a robotic gastrojejunostomy on a patient in Indore while seated at a console in Perth.

A gastrojejunostomy is a procedure that connects the stomach to a section of the small intestine called the jejunum.

The SSI Mantra robotic system can operate with 0.1 mm accuracy, or one-tenth of a millimetre, a level of precision beyond what the human hand can consistently achieve. (Photo: Special arrangement)

He did this using two pieces of technology built entirely in India: the SSI Mantra surgical robotic system and the MantrAsana telesurgeon console, both developed by SS Innovations International, a Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in India.

The surgery was performed live during the Annual Scientific Congress 2026 of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, held in Perth.

HOW DID A ROBOT PERFORM SURGERY ACROSS 10,000 KILOMETRES?

The MantrAsana console Dr Bhandari used in Perth is compact enough to fit inside a surgeon's office.

It comes equipped with a headset that provides a magnified three-dimensional, high-definition view of the patient’s insides, as though the surgeon was physically present in the room.

The MantrAsana telesurgeon console is compact enough to fit in a surgeon's office, yet powerful enough to control robotic arms operating on a patient thousands of kilometres away in real time. (Photo: Special arrangement)

Every movement Dr Bhandari made at the console was transmitted in real time to the SSI Mantra robotic arms in Indore, which mirrored those movements on the patient with 0.1 mm accuracy, which is one-tenth of a millimetre. This is a level of precision the human hand cannot consistently maintain.

The round-trip signal latency, or the time taken for a command to travel from Perth to Indore and back, remained under 150 milliseconds. A human blink takes roughly 150 to 400 milliseconds.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER FOR PATIENTS IN RURAL INDIA?

India has a severe shortage of specialist surgeons outside major cities. Telesurgery, or the ability to operate on a patient from thousands of kilometres away in real time, could change that equation entirely.

An expert surgeon in Delhi or Mumbai could, in theory, treat a critically ill patient in a remote village without either of them travelling anywhere.

A triple-view look at the 2026 SMRSC exhibition, a conference focused on surgical robotics and medtech, featuring the KAYA humanoid, the Vimana surgical drone, and the robotic arms of their surgical system. (Photo: SS Innovations/Radifah Kabir)

Dr Sudhir Srivastava, founder of SS Innovations International, described the milestone as a step towards democratising robotic surgery, and ensuring that world-class surgical care is no longer a privilege determined by geography.

For a country as vast and unequally resourced as India, that is not a small promise.

- Ends