Doctors at Delhi’s BLK-Max Super Specialty Hospital performed groundbreaking robotic surgery in just 20 minutes to remove a tennis ball-sized kidney cyst from a 15-year-old girl. She was born with abnormalities that caused both of her kidneys to fuse together on the left side.
She never knew about her condition and learned about it two years ago. She had a persistent dull ache on her left side, on and off as she grew up. But two years ago, the dull ache she felt turned into a pinching pain that lasted for ten minutes. As the episode’s frequency increased, the family consulted doctors.
dr. Surender Dabas, the hospital’s Senior Director and HOD, Surgical Oncology and Robotic Surgery, said the case was one of the most complicated and complex he has handled in his 30-year career as a surgeon.
Speaking to the media, Dr. Dabas: “Deepali was born with a fused kidney on the left side of her body and did not have a right kidney for practical purposes. She had a large 10X10cm cyst in that fused kidney that required immediate surgery. To make matters worse, the location of the cyst was very tricky because it was on an overlapping area of the ureter, renal arteries, and veins. Not only that, the renal vessels and ureter were abnormally intermingled with the cyst and injury to any of these structures would have been catastrophic for the patient.”
dr. Dabas went on to say that the surgery was so delicate that even a slight tilt would have resulted in the lone kidney being destroyed and they would have to remove it. Then Deepali would be on the transplant list and limited to a lifelong protocol of immunosuppressants.
The challenge for doctors was to open the kidney and remove the entire tumor to prevent recurrence and to stitch it back up without damaging the kidney. “Given the delicacy of the surgery, we had to shut down the renal artery for some time. We only had a 12 to 20 minute window. That is why I opted for a very accurate robotic surgery. Not only did we manage to do it neatly, but we also saved the kidney,” added Dr Dabas.
dr. Dabas also mentioned that the patient successfully underwent robotic excision of the cystic mass. The child’s small structure and smaller belly made things challenging. The doctors were able to dissect the entire mass with minimal blood loss. The technique left Deepali with minimal scars.
Deepali recovered quickly with no complications after surgery and was discharged on the fourth day after surgery.
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