First time in India: Zambian man with disabling complications undergoes complex surgery in Gurugram hospital

A 37-year-old Zambian man received a new lease of life after undergoing a ureter surgery via the Da Vinci robotic-assisted technology that became necessary after he suffered a major pelvic fracture and serious damage to his vital organs in an accident, doctors said on Wednesday.

The three-hour surgery was conducted recently at a Gurugram hospital.

The hospital claimed that such a surgery was done for the "first time in India".

Following his admission at the hospital, the patient was put on a catheter, the Fortis Memorial Research Institute said in a statement.

"He had severe disabling complications…," the statement said.

The robotic-assisted technology made the surgery easier as the doctors could reach areas difficult to reach with bare hands. The robot-aided surgeries provide 10 times magnification of the surgery site, the doctors said. 

Recently, Doctors at the AIIMS here performed laparoscopic surgery on a three-month-old boy to remove obstructions in both his kidneys, the premier government-run hospital, and claimed he became the youngest patient in the world to undergo this procedure.

The doctors in the Department of Paediatrics performed the bilateral laparoscopic pyeloplasty procedure, which is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to treat ureteropelvic junction obstruction, a congenital condition that obstructs the urinary tract and impairs urine flow from the kidneys to the bladder.

The procedure was performed in December and the patient was discharged three days after the surgery. Three months after the surgery, the doctors performed a test called renogram to ascertain the success of the surgery and to confirm that the obstruction in the kidney outflow was relieved, said Dr Vishesh Jain, additional professor in the Department of Paediatrics.