A one-year-old child with a tumour in her kidneys was treated using virtual reality and 3D printing technology at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research here.
The child had palpable swelling in her abdomen, and a CT scan revealed a large tumour affecting both kidneys. A team of doctors comprising Ramesh Babu Srinivasan, paediatric urologist, and Julius Scott, paediatric oncologist, evaluated the child and put her on chemotherapy for six weeks to shrink the tumour, which was too big to operate on.
Post-therapy, scan images of the tumour were enlarged to help plan the surgery. The doctors did a virtual reconstruction and replicas of the kidney and tumour were 3D printed. The doctors used these to plan and simulate the surgical procedure. Latha Ravichandran, professor of paediatrics, and Dean, Education, said the procedure’s significance was in its use of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research’s virtual reality laboratory.
Dr. Srinivasan said usually, only one kidney was affected and it was removed with the tumour. In a situation where both kidneys were affected by the tumour, removing the organ would make the person dialysis-dependent. Hence, the doctors decided to remove just the tumour in this case.
The urologist said removing the tumour involved a lot of planning as the doctors wanted to save as much of the kidney as possible. The blood supply to the organ was blocked for a short period, and it was cooled with ice. This helped to remove the tumour quickly. To prevent the tumour from regrowing, chemotherapy will be administered to the child. According to Dr. Srinivasan, this method of nephron-saving surgery is rare.
A press release added that the treatment was done free of cost under the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
