How robotic surgery is benefitting patients at the Apollo hospital

CHENNAI, INDIA: Chennai-based Apollo Children’s Hospital Surgeries is using robotics for surgeries.

Named the da Vinci robot, the technology provides a 3D view that helps doctors to navigate in a targeted manner and complete the procedure without affecting neighbouring cells and tissues, which is crucial in paediatrics.

This in turn provides patients with advantages like quicker discharge time, minimal scarring, smaller incisions and less blood loss.

Elaborating on how robotics helped in the treatment of 3 year old Aditya Somani, Dr Venkat Sripathi, Senior Consultant Paediatric Urologist, Apollo, said, “Aditya had urine flowing back to his kidneys, a condition called vesico-ureteral reflux and an obstruction, the combination of which had damaged his kidney requiring urgent surgery. With the help of robotics, we completed the procedure in 1 hour and 45 minutes reducing the child’s discomfort and helping him recover immediately. The block was removed, ureter reattached to the bladder and fixed in a way to prevent urine backflow into the kidneys.”

For another child, 5- year old Bhargavi who was suspected to have a block outside the kidney, robotics provided doctors with better magnification and manoeuvring capabilities, helping them to remove the block in 1.5 hours as against conventional and complicated surgery as that would have required a large incision to approach the kidney.