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Robotic surgery for kids

The following information is provided by a third party and has not been edited by The Post and Courier for content or accuracy.

LAS VEGAS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Robotic surgery is the latest and greatest tool in the operating room. In many cases it means smaller incisions and quicker recovery times; but until recently, it was primarily used for adults. Now, robotic arms are working their surgical magic on a new set of smaller patients.

Robots are no longer just part of the space age. They've made their way into the present age are helping doctors save children's lives.

"It happened on Thanksgiving," Martha Umana recalled."It happened on her birthday. On Christmas."

Some of the best of days in the Umana household turned into the worst.

"Her fever would go up to 105 and she would just go into a seizure," Martha said.

Kaila, Martha's daughter, suffered from a condition called hydronephrosis, or an obstruction of the urinary track, which can cause chronic kidney infections. The only cure was surgery. Luckily, the da Vinci robot helped doctors operate more precisely and less invasively on Kaila's tiny body. They move the robot's arms with a controller, using a telescopic lens as a guide.

"We would require about a five-inch incision in the abdomen," Waldo Feng, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric urology surgeon at Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas, explained to Ivanhoe. "Now the surgery is done using two small incisions about a dime each in size and one small incision in the belly button."

The robotic surgery means children go home with their parents sooner.

"It was like the best thing because she was only in the hospital about two days," Martha said.

Children as young as five-months-old have successfully undergone robotic surgery. The da Vinci is also used to operate on children's kidneys, esophagus and lungs. With a quicker recovery, Kaila is back to what's important -- being a kid.

Currently, researchers are working to develop robots that can operate on a beating heart, correct problems while a baby is still in utero and delicately perform precise brain surgeries in areas where a surgeon's tools can't fit.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Sunrise Children's Hospital

Ashlee Seymour, PR

(702) 731-8288

sunrisechildrenshospital.com

davincisurgery.com

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