Robot performs first kidney surgery in China

Beijing: A surgical robot in China's Guangdong province successfully carried out a kidney surgery on a six-year-old boy, a media report said.

The surgery was carried out in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou city on November 16, the People's Daily reported.

Hospital authorities said it is the very first robotic surgery performed on a child in the region. The child was diagnosed with severe left kidney hydronephrosis -- severe swelling of the kidney due to failure of normal drainage of urine to the bladder. As the boy was old enough and his symptoms were clear-cut, the hospital decided to employ the da Vinci Surgical System, using robotic manipulators.