Pediatric Robotic Surgery

From across the room, using controls and pedals—pediatric surgeons at Golisano Children’s Hospital are now able to operate on patients without even touching them. “It allows performances of deep surgeries in the pelvis or abdomen through tiny, little incisions as opposed to a traditional, large incision to get access to the areas where urologists often operate,” explained Dr. Rahman Abd-El-Barr, a pediatric urologist with Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.

The DaVinci robot is a robotic platform that allows surgeons to do minimally invasive surgery, leaving patients with smaller incisions and a quicker recovery. “This is important because it allows us to minimize recovery time, pain, bleeding with surgery, and especially with kids, it helps them to get back on their feet right away,” he said.

So when high school athlete, Reagan Rebeor found out she needed to have kidney surgery, she decided to have it robotically. “Thankfully, I did that because if not, I would have had a long scar down my stomach instead of small holes, small incisions. I had pain for three days, three or four days. Then after that, I was fine,” she said.

While it’s not an option for all pediatric surgeries, doctors say it can be very beneficial for teenage and adult patients needing reconstructive surgery. An option that allows patients a quicker and easier recovery.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.

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