A four-month-old baby in the UK is the youngest child in the world to successfully have surgery using a robotic surgery system.
Surgeons removed part of the boy’s narrow kidney tube using the Versius Surgical System – hailed a ‘game-changer’ for reconstructive surgery.
The team is excited about what this may mean for paediatric surgery. Its 5mm-wristed instruments offer increased precision, making operations less invasive and helping patients recover faster.
The boy underwent treatment at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH), part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), as part of a clinical study on using Versius in paediatric surgery.
Mohammed, who lives in Manchester, weighed just six kilogrammes when he underwent a pyeloplasty operation, surgery to treat a narrow ureter, which was stopping the urine made by his kidney from draining properly down towards his bladder.
This caused him to have severe urine infections as a baby. Without the operation, it could have resulted in him losing his kidney function entirely.
Pyeloplasty surgery aims to restore kidney drainage, prevent urinary infections, and, in older children, cure episodes of Dietl’s crisis, which can occur with this condition.
Mohammed was back home just three days after the surgery, which came with minimal scarring.
At RMCH, the Children’s Urology Team perform between 125 and 150 complex reconstructive surgeries per year, such as pyeloplasty, which may show benefits from being performed robotically.
Versius can also make complex operations less physically demanding for surgeons. This has the potential to reduce strain on surgical teams, allowing more complex surgeries to be carried out daily.
MFT is one of three sites participating in the study, aiming to recruit 60 to 70 patients. Other sites in England include Southampton Children’s Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, which are part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
The study will initially use Versius to undertake a range of urological (urinary tract) procedures in 150 paediatric patients across the UK before assessing its potential use for a broader range of conditions.
Toli Onon, Joint Chief Medical Officer at MFT, said: ‘We are delighted to be part of this exciting research. Robotic-assisted surgery is transforming patient experience and clinical outcomes and has been successfully used in adult surgery for many years. Delivering this revolutionary technique to such a young patient paves the way for increasingly complex surgery in many more babies and children.’
