Doctors at SGPGI Lucknow perform robotic surgery to remove adrenal gland tumour of 8-year-old child

Vishal, the eight-year-old-year-old boy, a resident of Lucknow had a tumour in his right adrenal gland, causing excessive weight gain, a swollen face, a hump in the neck, pimples on the face and high uncontrolled blood pressure levels despite taking more than two medicines to control his blood pressure.

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The tumour was growing continuously and was found to be secreting an excess amount of a hormone called cortisol, which causes a disease called Cushing’s syndrome.

A CT scan revealed a tumour in the child’s right adrenal gland, which is located above the kidney. The tumour was very complex and was attached to the surrounding organs.

The child was referred to Dr Gyan Chand, Endocrine Surgeon, at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow.

After controlling his blood pressure levels with the help of an Endocrinologist, the parents of the child were explained that the tumour needed to be operated and removed.

The doctors counselled the parents that if the child was operated by posterior retroperitoneoscopic robotic adrenalectomy method, then the tumour could be removed with less pain to the child and minimal scars, faster recovery with complete removal of the tumour, and costs less than traditional robotic adrenal surgery.

After the consent of the relatives, Dr Gyan Chand successfully removed the adrenal tumour from Vishal’s stomach through a small keyhole incision on the back by robotic method in a two-and-a-half-hour operation last week.

The surgeon said that by this method, through a small hole in the back, an adrenal tumour robotic surgery can be done without entering the abdomen.

The child is now free of any future complications of Cushing’s syndrome, as usually the disease causes a high risk of infections and hernia formation after surgery, due to which the patient has to be hospitalised for a long time.

These patients usually need to be operated multiple times. But this does not happen when operated by the robotic posterior retroperitoneoscopic method.

This type of robotic surgery has been done in Uttar Pradesh but it is the first of its kind to be performed in any government institution in India, in which adrenal tumour has been robotically removed by posterior retroperitoneoscopic method in a young child.

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