Robotic surgery is fast replacing conventional surgery and many doctors are giving it the green light.
One such surgeon, Dr. David Samadi, Vice Chairman, Department of Urology, and Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, has performed over 3,500 robotic prostatectomy procedures over the past ten years for prostate cancer.
The doctor believes that the robotic surgery is the ideal treatment for prostate cancer, however he also cautions that experience is the key to the surgery being a success. In a study which covered 110,016 prostatectomy patients close to 19% had robotic prostatectomy procedures, 21% had laparoscopic procedures and the rest had open procedures.
Both laparoscopic and robotic surgery patients had less blood loss and shorter hospital stays as per the study. Dr. Samadi said that both had great advantages over open surgery. Smaller incisions and enhanced visibility allow me to see the cancer and remove the prostate through a much cleaner surgical field. With robotic surgery, the visibility is enhanced 10x with 3D imaging and the dexterity of the robot in my hands is very precise he added.
Dr. Samadi also said that it was considerably more challenging to perform robotic prostatectomy surgery after radiation, so if the cancer comes back treatment options can be more limited. The reality is that cancer staging tests provide limited information he said. Often, it's not until he was in the midst of surgery that he could fully see the extent of the cancer. And there was a high incidence of post-surgical tests that stage a patient's cancer at a more advanced level than pre-surgery biopsies were able to.