Apollo Hospitals, one of Asia’s largest integrated healthcare provider groups, has hosted a first of its kind workshop in the country on paediatric robotic urology on January 23rd and 24th, 2016 at The Accord Metropolitan, Chennai. The workshop, designed and conceptualised to train surgeons from across India, was led by Dr Mohan Gundeti from Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago and Dr V Sripathi, senior consultant paediatric urologist and robotic surgeon, Apollo Children’s Hospital.

Despite robot assisted laparoscopic surgery offering excellent outcomes and early recovery, it has not been leveraged to its full potential due to dearth of skilled surgeons with the necessary expertise. Dr V Sripathi says, “We have conducted this workshop in an effort to bridge this knowledge gap. The versatility of the robotic platform in children’s surgery is not well known and we hope that a hundred experienced surgeons who gained knowledge and technology at the workshop will benefit countless others.”

“All aspects of robot assisted surgery including anesthesia, patient positioning, trocar insertion, instrument selection and usage and surgical techniques were demonstrated. The emphasis will always be on the safe use of the technology to achieve the best result and save the precious child,” Dr V Sripathi added.

Over two days, more than a hundred specialist surgeons from around India saw the Da Vinci robot being used to perform complex surgeries on the kidney, ureters and bladder. A unique feature of this workshop is the offer by Apollo Hospitals to give training on the robot for 50 surgeons. On each day, at the end of the operating session, the selected surgeons were allowed to sit on the console of the Da Vinci robot to experience first-hand the advantages robot assisted surgery offers over conventional surgeries. They were guided through training exercises by experts and certified as well.

Last year, Apollo Children’s Hospitals showcased how expertise in robotics helped transform the lives of 65 children from India and abroad. Surgeries performed at Apollo Children's Hospital using the da Vinci Robot provides advantages like quicker discharge time, reduced discomfort and pain, minimal scarring, smaller incisions, enhanced magnification, greater accuracy, better precision and less blood loss that conventional laparoscopy offers over open surgeries.