Unique operation in Ukraine: in Lviv, newborn's bile ducts were formed using Da Vinci robot
Lviv surgeons formed a newborn's bile ducts using the Da Vinci robot. This is the first such case in Ukraine. This is reported by the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
"Without this intervention, Oksanka from the Ivano-Frankivsk Region might not have lived to see her one year old. A few days after the baby was born, her parents noticed yellowing of her body and sclera of her eyes. That's when they sought medical help. The diagnosis made by the doctors knock the ground out from under the parents' feet," the report says.
The girl was diagnosed with biliary atresia - this is when bile is not excreted from the liver due to an anatomical defect and the pathology first leads to the death of the organ, and then - of the child herself. Only an urgent operation, developed by Japanese surgeon Morio Kasai and performed up to three months of age, could save the baby.
On May 6, Oksana was operated on using the robotic-assisted Da Vinci Si system. This is how Kasai's operation is performed in Japan, the USA and South Korea.
Lviv pediatric surgeons formed a new bile duct in the baby. And thanks to the operation, they did it without blood loss.
However, Kasai's operation does not solve the problem completely. It allows doctors to buy time for children like Oksana to grow up, get stronger and live until the future liver transplant. Currently, the child's life is not in danger.
In total, about 100 interventions have been performed on children using the Da Vinci robotic system at the First Medical Association of Lviv.