HYDERABAD: When a three-year-old girl, Nikitha, was diagnosed with a recurrent urinary tract infection, the first response from doctors was to prescribe medication. But when that did not help, doctors at the Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology (AINU) suggested robotic surgery to help her.
The toddler was diagnosed with a malfunctioned valve in the kidney due to which urine, which needs to pass from the kidney through the bladder, went back into the kidney causing an infection. After a four-hour robotic procedure, the doctors successfully repaired the valve and discharged the baby on Tuesday, just four days after the operation.
With this, the AINU has conducted 1,000 robotic surgeries in the fields of urology, uro-oncology, and nephrology care. The AINU is now one of the select few institutions in India to cross this milestone.
Robotic surgery does not translate to surgery done entirely by a robot. It is the surgeon who identifies the exact location that needs to be operated on and makes the necessary hand movements sitting at a system. “The robot replicates the surgeon’s movements and operates on the patient with a much better precision,” said Dr C Mallikarjuna, chief consultant urologist and managing director, AINU.
Besides the precision in operation, robotic surgery is said to cause minimal blood loss and pain. Doctors also claim that these surgeries have facilitated a shorter recovery time for many patients. Dr Mallikarjuna admitted that the surgery can be expensive. “At present, the surgery is costly. But in complicated cases, the outcome would be much better when a robotic surgery is done as compared to a traditional one,” he said.
Robotic surgeries are not required in all operations of urology or nephrology. It is only required in complicated cases where the area to be operated on is very small and involves a lot of complications in traditional surgery. “It can be used in most inaccessible areas with ease. It also analyses the images of the patient and helps during surgery,” said Dr PC Reddy, senior urologist and executive director of AINU.