Robotic surgery saves 15-year-old girl with single fused kidney and cyst

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The doctors at BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi, performed a lifesaving robotic surgery to remove large renal cyst from a 15-year-old girl born with single fused kidney.

The surgery was performed by a team of doctors led by Dr Surender Dabas, senior director and HOD, surgical oncology and robotic surgery, BLK-Max Hospital.

“This was one of the most complicated cases to handle. After evaluation, we decided to perform high precision robotic surgery to remove the cyst. The case was challenging we had to ensure removal of a 10X10 cm cyst while ensuring minimal damage to the solitary kidney of the child along with its blood vessels and ureter,” Dr. Dabas said.

Highlighting the abnormal intermingling of renal vessels, ureter and cyst, Dr. Dabas said injury to any of these structures would have been catastrophic to the patient.

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The patient was a 15-year-old girl, born with development abnormalities that caused both her kidneys to fuse together on the left side and had an absent right kidney.

“The patient came with complaints of on-and-off pain in the left flank for over 18 months. Detailed contrast enhanced CT scan also revealed the presence of horn-like structure on the left side of intestine, enlarged left kidney with left renal para pelvic cyst, absent right kidney, unicornuate uterus and undescended right ovary,” Dr. Dabas said.

According to Dr Dabas, the patient's tennis-ball-sized cyst, which has been removed with robotic surgery, would have otherwise required a kidney transplant.

“Due to the use of robotic surgery, the patient made a swift recovery without any post-op complications and was discharged on the fourth day after surgery,” he added.

The cyst, which was removed after robotic surgery, measured 10X10 cm in size (size of a tennis ball).

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“She successfully underwent robotic excision of the cystic mass. Making use of robotic technology, meticulous dissection of the surround structures, blood vessels and ureters, the team was successfully able to dissect the cystic mass with minimal blood loss and preserving the surrounding structures,” said Dr Dabas.