Robots being put to work in childrens’ operating rooms

Robot-assisted surgery is constantly being adapted to new procedures–everything from brain surgery to joint replacements.

Now, the technique is aimed at a new population: kids.

With four arms, swivel wrists and super-human vision, robots are a welcome addition to the O-R. Its expertise is in working in small spaces and accessing hard-to-reach places.

“You see structures in 3D in real-time,” said Dr. Mike Arnold, pediatric general surgeon at Lee Health. “It’s also very high def. You can see smaller structures in more detail when you’re doing the operation, and so that allows you for a finer motion and a finer dissection when you’re doing your procedures.”

Arnold is taking the DaVinci robot into new territory, using it on kids who need general surgery at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

“Most of the surgeries that we’re doing are common ones like a gallbladder surgery. We also do inguinal hernia surgery in older children and teenagers,” Arnold said.

This could be the start of something big. Robots are used on adults every day for operations and procedures throughout the body. Because it offers such a delicate touch, there’s a growing opportunity to use it on younger, smaller children.

“The patients that we do the most procedures on right now are our teenagers, and I think because we’ve newly adopted it into the practice, as we continue with it, we will offer the surgery to smaller and smaller children. I know many urology surgeons that use the robot and children that are as small as ten and younger, so toddlers, really,” Arnold said.

The benefit of this method is the same as adults. There are no open cuts, and surgery is performed through small holes. It leads to less bleeding, less chance of infection, and faster recovery. Helping kids get back to being a kid.

Also in line with adult procedures, more robotic surgeries are being opened for pediatric use.

Arnold said that kids seem to like that their operation is recorded in hi-def video and that they can watch it later.