For the first time in Poland a robot helps in children surgery

The University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk (UCK) announced that for the first time in Poland robot-assisted surgeries were carried out at the hospital. "Robotic surgery carries huge potential advantages and possibilities for both young patients and doctors. It allows, for instance, for a much more precise method of operating," says Prof. Piotr Czauderna, head of the Department of Surgery and Urology for Children and Adolescents at the UCK.

Robot-assisted surgeries are less invasive, which means less surgical pain for the patients, quicker healing due to smaller incisions, and shorter hospitalization period. Statistics show that children are discharged home already after 12 hours after operation. Using modern technologies also carries real benefits for doctors.

"It's definitely a higher degree of precision and easiness in carrying out operations by surgeons once they have gained experience. Fatigue factor is also removed, and it plays a huge role in laparoscopy. The longer the surgery, the harder it is to operate and the higher the inconvenience and burden related with constrained posture. Robot-assisted surgeries allow to eleminate these difficulties," Prof. Czauderna says.

The three operations the UCK boasts of were carried out by a French expert Prof. Thomas Blanc of the Necker–Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, who was assisted by specialists from the Department of Surgery and Urology for Children and Adolescents. The team included Prof. Piotr Czauderna, Dr Andrzej Gołębiewski, Dr Marcin Łosin, an anaesthesiologist - Dr Małgorzata Barwicka, and a perioperative nurse - Anna Raczkowska. All five underwent training in France.

The team operated on three patients, two of whom were oncological cases - one with an adrenal cyst and the other with a pancreatic tumor. The third one had a urinary tract defect in the form of hydronephrosis. All three were girls aged 4,6, and 17 respectively.

UCK experts add that robot-assisted surgeries also have some downsided: they are much more expensive and the National Health Fund does not refund them. Here is where sponsors the UCK has found come into play.

Due to these drawbacks, robotic surgeries will be limited only to cases in which its use will be justified. Specialists from the UCK estimate that the facility could carry out 40-50 of such operations a year.

The University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk is the main teaching hospital at the Medical University of Gdańsk. It is a multi-speciality hospital, the largest in the north of Poland and one of the largest in the country.