Imagine spending 15 years managing a disease that never really lets you rest — pain, infections, and uncertainty becoming the background noise of everyday life. That was the reality for Rajesh (name changed), a man in his late 30s, living with Crohn’s disease since his early twenties. Then came the final blow: his bowel had created an abnormal tunnel into his urinary bladder — a rare complication that left him passing gas and faecal matter through his urine.
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Advanced robotic surgery at MITR Hospital offers renewed hope and improved quality of life to a patient living with Crohn’s disease
Today, Rajesh is home and pain-free — able to plan his life without planning around his illness. He is one of a handful of patients in India to have undergone robotic multi-specialty surgery for an ileo-vesical fistula, performed at MITR Hospital, Navi Mumbai by a joint team of urological and gastrointestinal surgeons, entirely through keyhole incisions.
A Case That Would Have Meant Major Open Surgery — Almost Anywhere Else
An ileo-vesical fistula is a rare and serious complication of long-standing Crohn’s disease. Years of chronic inflammation had created so much scarring in Rajesh’s case that conventional laparoscopy risked injuring surrounding organs, while open surgery would have meant a large abdominal cut and a much longer recovery. Using a robotic system with magnified 3D vision and instruments capable of movements the human hand cannot replicate, the team removed the diseased bowel segment, closed the abnormal opening in the bladder, and reconstructed the bladder wall — all through small incisions, in a single operation.
Dr Manish Dubey, Senior Urologist & Robotic Surgeon, MITR Hospital, commented, “This case required close coordination between urology and gastrointestinal surgery, given the severe scarring built up over 15 years of Crohn’s disease. The robotic platform gave us the precision and three-dimensional clarity to dissect safely through tissue that would have been extremely difficult to navigate otherwise. The patient walking out in days rather than weeks is the result we always aim for.”
Dr Vijaykumar Malladi, General & GI Surgeon, MITR Hospital added, “The intestinal component of this surgery — resecting the diseased bowel and restoring continuity — is technically demanding even in routine cases. In a patient with 15 years of Crohn’s-related scarring, the robotic system allowed us to work with a level of precision and safety that would not have been possible through conventional means. This is exactly the kind of case where multi-specialty robotic surgery delivers results that truly change a patient’s life.”
Rajesh (name changed), Patient was thankful and said “For fifteen years, I lived with pain that never really went away — just good days and bad days. Towards the end, even the good days became rare. I’m just grateful to MITR Hospital team for beingable to plan my life again instead of planning around my illness.”
What Robotic Surgery Means for Patients
For most patients, surgery still conjures images of large scars and weeks of recovery. Robotic surgery changes that picture. Working through a few small keyhole openings, the surgeon has magnified 3D vision and instruments far more flexible than the human wrist — meaning less blood loss, less pain, and a dramatically faster return home. Many MITR Hospital patients are walking the same day and discharged the next. In cancer operations such as radical prostatectomy, robotic precision can also protect the delicate nerves that control bladder function — a difference that matters long after the patient goes home.
MITR Hospital: A Centre of Excellence for Robotic Urological Surgery
MITR Hospital has performed over 70 robotic urological and urogynaecological procedures since 2024, across the full spectrum of the specialty — from cancer surgery (radical prostatectomy, partial and radical nephrectomy) to complex reconstruction (pyeloplasty, Boari flap, ureteric reimplantation, augmentation cystoplasty) and urogynaecological procedures (sacrocolpopexy, vesicovaginal fistula repair). That breadth, delivered consistently from a 25-bedded focused surgical centre where every patient has direct access to their treating surgeon, is what defines a true centre of excellence.
Dr Vijaykumar Yadav, Consultant Urologist, MITR Hospital also added, “Robotic surgery has transformed our ability to manage complex cases in a minimally invasive way. Cases that once required large incisions and prolonged hospital stays can now be performed precisely through small ports, with patients recovering at home within days.”
About MITR Hospital
MITR Hospital is a super speciality surgical hospital in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Established in 2010, MITR Hospital is led by a team of specialist doctors and surgeons. In the last 16 years, MITR Hospital has served 1.2 lakh patients with more than 20,000 successful surgeries. The departments include a comprehensive urology department including Adult Urology, Andrology, Pediatric Urology services, General and GI surgery, Gynecology, Gastreneterology & Hepatology, Orthopedics, Arthoroscopy & Joint replacement and Internal medicine. Led by senior specialists and supported by dedicated nursing and anaesthesia teams, the hospital is committed to delivering the highest standard of surgical care with the personal attention that larger institutions cannot always provide. More information is available at www.mitrhospital.com.
