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Cincinnati Children’s First Children’s Hospital in the World To Use New da Vinci® Xi Robotic Surgical System for a Pediatric Procedure

Monday, September 22, 2014

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has become the first children’s hospital in the world to perform a pediatric surgical procedure using the latest model da Vinci® robot.

Cincinnati Children’s took possession of the new model, the da Vinci® Xi Surgical System, in Aug. The Xi replaced the S model, which Cincinnati Children’s purchased in 2009. That model was developed for adult patients and had limited use in pediatric surgery.

The surgical procedure, performed on Aug. 27, was a pyeloplasty – an operation to correct a blockage between the kidney and the ureter, which takes urine from the kidney to the bladder. The patient was a male teenager who developed symptoms similar to that of a kidney stone. The patient required no narcotics for pain and was discharged less than 24 hours after this major kidney operation.

The procedure was performed by Paul Noh, MD, director of minimally invasive surgery for the division of Pediatric Urology.

“We expect the da Vinci® Xi to open up a new world of minimally invasive surgical procedures that benefit children and their families by making surgeries less invasive and reducing length of hospital stay,” says Pramod Reddy, MD, director of Pediatric Urology at Cincinnati Children’s. “The new model is designed to improve patient safety, save costs, and allow robotic surgery to be performed on smaller patients, including infants. The system is optimized for the kind of complex procedures for which families travel to Cincinnati Children’s from around the world.”

The new da Vinci® has the potential to be used for a wider range of minimally invasive abdominal surgeries than the S model. The new design means that infants and children in the operating room do not need to be repositioned, which can take as long as an hour before the procedure is started. Like the S, the new model initially will be used by the division of Urology for urological procedures. Because of the new system’s technological advancements, use of the robot could spread to other surgical divisions of the medical center, including otolaryngology, general surgery, and pediatric gynecology.

Intuitive Surgical b-roll of the da Vinci® Xi is available on request.

About Cincinnati Children’s

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center ranks third in the nation among all Honor Roll hospitals in U.S.News & World Report’s 2014 Best Children’s Hospitals. It is also ranked in the top 10 for all 10 pediatric specialties. Cincinnati Children’s, a non-profit organization, is one of the top three recipients of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health, and a research and teaching affiliate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The medical center is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Additional information can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org. Connect on the Cincinnati Children’s blog, via Facebook and on Twitter.