Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced today that longtime supporters Kirk and Anne Douglas donated $2.3 million to purchase a da Vinci surgical robot and train physicians in the use of the state-of-the-art equipment.
“The new robot will expand the hospital’s capacity to perform major surgery on infants and children using technology that permits faster in-patient and at-home recoveries,” said Dr. Roger E. De Filippo, chief of the Division of Urology at CHLA.
“It allows for smaller incisions, precise levels of accuracy and magnified high-resolution 3D images of the surgical field,” he said. “It is an incredible gift.”
The use of robotics is particularly beneficial for urologic conditions, with more than 400 successful surgeries performed to date, according to CHLA. In the past two years, the hospital has expanded the scope of its 6-year-old robotic program — which was the first on the West Coast — to include children as young as four months.
