SGPGI Lucknow conducts robotic assisted complex surgery for tracheoesophageal fistula

Recognised as a congenital deformity in medical literature, the condition is seen in one out of one lakh new-born babies.

In this disease, food or water consumed leaks from the food pipe and sneaks into sterile windpipe. As a result, either the patient falls sick with frequent pneumonia or gets choked.

Be it babies or adults, the only way to manage the condition is to conduct a repair procedure called open thoracotomy in which surgeons repair the hole to restore normalcy of function.

In the conventional method, gastro-surgeons approached the problem area through a long, multi-layer surgery which had its set of risks like large incision, loss of blood, secondary infection, and longer hospital stays.

The cost of relief was significantly high.

With the arrival of medical robot at SGPGIMS, the risks with the procedure have been brought down significantly while the recovery has been fast-tracked.

However, the disease is rarer among elders like Zoya (the patient in this case) and may be caused by any injury, including the one sustained during a medical procedure, cancers and tuberculosis.

Professor Rajneesh Kumar Singh, whose team, including Dr Raghavendra and Dr Palash, uses the medical robot on a wide range of gastro-oesophageal conditions, said, "Zoya's story is a case in point. The precision, ease of operation and quick recovery help both the patient and doctors. Operating with conventional method was as strenuous as a five-kilometre-long brisk walk while now it is like a casual stroll over the grass. There is no residual fatigue as the stressors have been eliminated."

Zoya's father, Shaukat Javed, said, "We were told it will be a major surgery but it did not seem like that. Zoya was walking in the ward the next day. She was retained only to monitor healing of sutures. We could go back home on the fifth day."