Surgeons at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital successfully removed a pancreatic tumor from a young girl from Zakarpattia without making any open incisions, preserving the organ’s function. The patient has already returned home to recover.
Pediatric surgeons in Lviv performed a unique, high-tech procedure, saving the pancreas of a 14-year-old girl from the Zakarpattia region named Viorika. To remove the tumor, doctors used the world-class Da Vinci robotic system.
The First Medical Association of Lviv (St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital) reported on the successful surgery and the course of treatment.
Accidental Discovery and the Search for a Safe Treatment Method
The cyst in the teenager’s pancreas was discovered entirely by chance during a routine preventive ultrasound examination in Zakarpattia. Doctors in Zakarpattia promptly referred the girl to a specialized surgical center in Lviv:
- The mother’s position: Vita’s mother was categorically opposed from the outset to traditional open strip surgery involving large, traumatic incisions;
- Main risk: Conventional excision of such a section carried the risk of serious damage to healthy pancreatic tissue, which could have led to the development of diabetes and disability for the young girl in the future.
A three-hour precision procedure using the Da Vinci system
The surgical team decided to perform a minimally invasive resection using the Da Vinci robotic system, which allows for maneuvers with microscopic precision through several tiny incisions:
- Precision surgery: as noted by Andriy Dvorakevych, head of the Surgery Center at St. Nicholas Hospital, ultra-precise microinstruments and 3D magnification allowed the team to delicately separate the benign tumor from the surrounding blood vessels and tissues;
- Organ preservation: The procedure lasted about three hours. The doctors managed to remove the tumor without damaging the pancreas itself;
- Rapid recovery: Thanks to the absence of significant surgical trauma, the postoperative period proceeded without complications.
Currently, 14-year-old Viorika has been discharged from the hospital and is at home in Zakarpattia with her family, awaiting the final results of the histological examination.
Source: St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
