Uttar Pradesh's SGPGIMS will now be touted as the first government hospital in the state to have robotically removed a tumour. A team of doctors at Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences performed a robotic surgery to remove the adrenal tumour of an eight-year-old boy. The surgery was done by an approach from the back, through the posterior retroperitoneoscopic method.

The patient, a resident of Lucknow, suffered from a tumour in the right adrenal gland. This caused him to gain weight and have high and uncontrolled blood pressure levels. It also resulted in a swollen face, hump in the neck and pimples on his face.

The procedure of cure included controlling the child's blood pressure levels via an endocrinologist's aid and then operating and removing the tumour. The doctors, under Dr Gyan Chand, an endocrine surgeon at Lucknow's SGPGIMS, also counselled the parents of the patient and guided them through the steps of the procedure.

After the consent of the family, the breakthrough surgery took place last week. Herein, Dr Chand successfully removed the adrenal tumour from the child's stomach. The robotic operation, done via a small keyhole incision on his back, took some two-and-a-half hours.

Through a fortunate series of events, the child is now free of Cushing's Syndrome and any future complications. The robotic surgery also eliminated the scope of future multiple sittings, for had the surgery taken place through traditional means, the patient would have normally needed multiple operations.

While this form of robotic surgery has occurred in private institutions before, it is claimed to be a first for a government hospital in Uttar Pradesh.