Keck performs groundbreaking surgeries

A team of doctors from the USC Keck School of Medicine performed a series of groundbreaking surgeries last month using robotic technology, making it the first of its kind in kidney surgeries.

The operations — which were led by Dr. Inderbir Gill, founding director of the USC Institute of Urology — allowed patients Cecile Johnson of Bartlesville, Okla., and Gary Fradkin of Van Nuys, Calif., to keep their kidneys when they otherwise would have needed a transplant.

Gill said he believes using robotic technology for surgical procedures such as these will become the future standard for medicine.

“Going forward, robotics has the capability to extend the performance of the human hand. It will be able to outperform us in terms of dexterity and ability, and is really as steady as can be and can reach into tight corners,” he said.

Johnson, who was diagnosed with a renal artery aneurysm, has lived with only one kidney since the was 17. She was the first patient in the world to undergo surgery using robotic techniques to operate on a patient with one kidney.

“It’s pretty cool hearing about this new cutting-edge technology. Knowing Dr. Gill’s background and the reputation that precedes him, it didn’t surprise me at all that he used these kinds of pioneering techniques,” Johnson said. “It was really amazing to me to see how far medical science has come.”

The operation was challenging for Gill because Johnson only had a one kidney.

“Doing surgery on the aneurysm in just one kidney is very risky because if it doesn’t go well, the patient will lose that kidney and have to go on dialysis,” Gill said. “This became an extremely high risk and challenging aspect of this particular surgery, but the operation went beautifully.”

The second surgery was performed on Fradkin, who was diagnosed with tumors on both kidneys.

After undergoing numerous CAT and MRI scans, Fradkin was referred to Dr. Gill by his regular physician.

“Going into surgery, there was a 70 percent chance that they would have to end up removing my right kidney,” Fradkin said. “But through Dr. Gill’s experience and the technology that he is currently using, he was able to save almost my entire kidney, with only 5 percent needing to be removed.”

Gill also relied heavily on various other forms of technology in addition to the robotic surgical techniques in order to prepare for Fradkin’s complex operation.

“We got some highly sophisticated CAT scans and then reconstructed the images from those using a type of software that we have developed here at USC. We constructed a three-dimensional image from those CAT scans and created a virtual reality representation of the tumor that allowed me to figure out just exactly how to cut out the tumor,” Gill said.

Both Fradkin and Johnson attributed their successful surgeries and recoveries to the extensive experience of Dr. Gill and his team, which included Dr. Casey Ng, Dr. Mukul Patil, Dr. Osamu Ukimura and computer engineer Dr. Masahiko Nakamoto.

“Dr. Gill and his team of doctors at USC were just wonderful to have at my side. They answered any question I had and just made me feel really good about the entire process,” Johnson said.

The two patients said they would recommend using robotic technology in surgery for patients with similar conditions in the future as well.

“Honestly, I think that this type of procedure is the only way to go now,” Fradkin said.