Worldwidely first double robotic operation to a child.

Novel robotic surgical operations were performed for the first time in Greece, in Athens Medical Center by the surgeon Dr.K.M.Konstantinidis, his scientific team and pediatric surgeons from Athens Pediatric Center of Athens Medical Group. Eight-year old Fani and eleven-year old Panagiotis recently made history with their succesful robotic operations.

For the first operation of the eleven-year old Panagiotis, Dr.Konstantinidis (general surgeon) and Dr.Valioulis (Pediatric Surgeon) used the da Vinci robotic system to remove the boy’s spleen. The boy suffered from a serious condition affecting the number of his red blood cells with an everyday destruction of them at the spleen. As a result of this constant hemolysis the child also suffered from gallstones, a fact that finally led to the decision for the first double robotic operation of splenectomy and cholecystectomy at a child worldwidely. Robotic approach was selected in order to avoid a large incision with its known complications.

Panagioti’s case was a challenge for the surgical team, not only due to his small body shape, but also due to the large dimensions of the spleen. Athens Medical Center Surgical Team planned the novel double operation in a step-by-step fashion and completed the procedure with the removal of the gallbladder and the spleen with minimal blood loss. Hematological parameters of the child were corrected soon after the procedure. Just a few days after the procedure the boy was ready to return at home and family.

The second case was about an 8-year old girl named Fanoula, who presented with a large cyst pressing her spleen. Instead of going into open surgery, which would demand a 15-cm incision incision in her upper abdomen (with consequent postoperative pain and longterm hospital stay, young Fanoula underwent a robotic operation too. A careful preoperative preparation led finally to the safe completion of the procedure through four 5mm incisions, with preservation of the normal spleen which was possible to separate from the cyst thanks to the robotic arm dexterity. The cyst was removed totally without any blood loss. The patient left the hospital happy, a few days later.

«Surgery has been changed for ever », says Dr.Konstantinidis, Director of General, Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgical Clnic – Athens Medical Center. «The unique sterescopic visualization offered by robotic surgery, the absolute precision and dexterity of the robotic instruments and the facilitation of complicated maneuvers in narrow spaces of the abdomen, give us today the great potential to perform even the harder operations to the smaller of our patients in a bloodless manner. Our clinic has already a large experience with operations on obese patients of 192kg as well as on small children of 22Kgs both safely and efficiently.

Although robotic surgery has been practiced in Greece since 2006 in Athens Medical Center, its application in pediatric patients started for the first time in Greece in October 2009 in Athens Pediatric Center.