Girl gets new lease of life after rare robotic pancreatic surgery

Chennai: After years of crippling abdominal pain, repeated hospital admissions, and multiple failed endoscopic procedures, a 12-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu has found relief through a rare and highly complex robotic pancreatic reconstruction surgery performed at Kauvery Hospital.

Doctors said the procedure - a robotic Frey’s surgery carried out to treat chronic pancreatitis caused by a congenital defect - was the first of its kind to be performed on a child in the state, marking a major milestone in paediatric minimally invasive surgery.

The child was suffering for several years from pancreatic divisum, a rare congenital condition in which the pancreatic ducts fail to fuse normally during foetal development. The abnormality affects the drainage of pancreatic secretions, leading to recurrent inflammation, severe abdominal pain, nutritional issues and repeated hospitalisations.

“Despite undergoing multiple endoscopic interventions and pancreatic duct stenting procedures, her condition continued to worsen and eventually progressed into chronic pancreatitis. We decided to proceed with definitive surgical treatment through a robotic Frey’s procedure,” said Dr Senthil Gnanasekaran, clinical lead - abdominal organ transplant and HPB surgery.

Doctors said the child recovered well with minimal blood loss, significantly less postoperative pain, and was discharged six days after the surgery. Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, co-founder and executive director of the Kauvery Group of Hospitals, said robotic pancreatic reconstruction surgeries in children are exceedingly rare worldwide because pancreatic surgery itself is among the most technically demanding gastrointestinal procedures.