The procedure was innovative as the patient underwent the removal of her cancer-bearing right kidney, right adrenal and uterus in a single laparoscopic surgery, without any cut on her abdomen. All the three organs were innovatively removed through the patient’s vagina.

Dr Baldev Singh Aulakh, Professor of Urology and Transplant Surgery, Head of Transplant Unit of DMCH said the procedure was conducted with Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) which is laparoscopic procedure with incisionless surgery and is conducted without any abdominal cut.

The patient was a 49-year-old woman presented with a history of blood in urine which on further investigation was found to be due to cancer in her right kidney. The patient also gave history of excessive menstrual bleeding.

Her pelvic ultrasound revealed a tumour in the uterine cervix. The CT scan revealed the tumour to be probably malignant, he said.

Thus the patient was taken up for laparoscopic removal of her right kidney and adrenal gland, along with the laparoscopic removal of her uterus by a surgical team headed by Dr Aulakh and also including Dr Ashima Taneja (Gyanecologist), Dr Amit Mahajan, Dr Tejpal Singh Gill and Dr Muninder Singh Randhawa.

The surgery was performed via three small openings in the abdominal wall through which the operating laparoscope and various operating instruments were inserted.

The innovative step in this surgery was that the patient’s kidney and adrenal gland were removed along with her uterus, through her vaginal opening.