ROBOT SURGERY SAVES LIFE OF TEENAGER

In the first such reported case, a large tennis ball sized tumor was removed from a 14- year- old teenager’s left adrenal gland. Doctors said that robotic surgery is rarely used in children because of small size of abdomen. The 14- year- old teenager was presented to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital ( SGRH) with sweating, palpitations, breathlessness, and high blood pressure and upon diagnosis, he was found to have a large 8- cm tumor in left adrenal gland, along with high catecholamine ( hormone) levels, suggestive of pheochromocytoma. The child was planned for excision of tumor by robotic surgery, rather than open surgery. “The location and size of tumor, its proximity to vital organs like pancreas and major blood vessels, coupled with small abdominal cavity in a child made it a very challenging and robotic platform was chosen to overcome these problems. The additional benefits of small incisions, minimal blood loss and faster recovery in a child made us proceed with robotics,” said Dr Vivek Bindal, Robotic surgeon at the hospital. As per doctors, it is the first such reported case of robotic pheochromocytoma ( large tumor) excision in pediatric age group in India. Another challenge was to maintain blood pressure before, during, and after the two- hour surgery. Even minimal manipulation of adrenal tumor during surgery can shoot the blood pressure to alarming levels, while it falls precipitously immediately after removal of tumor.