Children’s Hospital of Fudan University has launched two national Da Vinci robotic surgery demonstration centers: the “Da Vinci Clinical Teaching Demonstration Center for Pediatric General Surgery” and the “Da Vinci Clinical Teaching Demonstration Center for Pediatric Urology.” Since introducing the fourth-generation Da Vinci Xi system until now, CHFU has performed over 2,000 robotic minimally invasive procedures on children—transitioning from rapid adoption to standardized, demonstrable, and nationally leading practice. Its pediatric robotic capabilities is stable at international advanced level.
With delicate organs, narrow body cavity and fine anatomical structure, children have extreme requirements for precision in each operation. In October 2022, Children's Hospital of Fudan University introduced the fourth-generation Da Vinci surgical robot, so that the cutting-edge high-end minimally invasive technology can effectively serve children. The surgical robot has a three-dimensional high-definition field of view with more than 10 times magnification and a robotic arm with 540° free rotation of the wrist, which can accurately filter the physiological tremor of the hand and complete the fine anastomosis and reconstruction on the millimeter scale. Relying on the technical advantages of robots, the surgical team of CHFU has accurately overcome various problems in pediatric surgery.
Compared with traditional surgery, robotic minimally invasive surgery has the advantages of less trauma, less intraoperative bleeding, and faster postoperative recovery. It minimizes the pain of children's diagnosis and treatment, shortens the length of hospital stay, and effectively reduces the burden of many families. Through continuous optimization of the surgical plan, CHFU has established a mature minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment system that is suitable for children's physiological characteristics and clinical practice, so that the development speed of robotic projects and the quality of surgery are ranked in the first echelon of pediatrics in China.
Robotic surgery in CHFU has benefited thousands of children with urinary system diseases, covering all ages from infants to 18 years old, and almost all complex malformations and various tumors in children's urology. Including hydronephrosis, vesicoureteral reflux, duplicate kidney malformation, renal cyst and tumor, adrenal tumor, etc., the urological team actively carried out the robotic single-port surgery, which not only achieved good surgical results, but also made the postoperative wound scar hidden and beautiful. Launching the first “Da Vinci Clinical Teaching Demonstration Center for Pediatric Urology.” will provide a strong guarantee for CHFU to continue to explore the combination of medicine and education and to train minimally invasive technology backbone for more children's specialized hospitals.
With the courage to overcome all kinds of complicated and difficult cases, the team has accumulated rich and mature experience in minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of difficult and difficult operations such as choledochal cyst, pancreatic tumor, complex hydronephrosis, and renal tumor. At the same time, the team has always maintained in-depth dialogue with the international pediatric minimally invasive field. Members have been invited to give special reports at the International Pediatric Surgery Congress and the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery Global Summit to share the "Chinese experience" of pediatric robotic minimally invasive surgery, attracting colleagues from Japan, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong.