The Robotic Surgeon Blog

  • Rhode Island joins robotic community

    Robotic surgery on prostate cancer arrives in R.I. | Rhode Island news | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal This is robot-assisted surgery — and some say it’s the future of surgery. Miriam Hospital is the first hospital in the state to acquire the robot, called the da Vinci Surgical System, which…

  • Prostate cancer surgery: Should we consider a more comprehensive gleason grading after surgery

    UroToday – Should the Gleason Grading System for Prostate Cancer be Modified to Account for High-Grade Tertiary Components? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) – A systematic review and meta-analysis by Dr. Harnden and associates suggests that a tertiary Gleason grade is associated with worse oncologic prostate cancer (CaP) outcomes and warrants greater…

  • New medicine against advanced kidney cancer

    FDA approves third new targeted therapy for advanced RCC – UrologyTimes The FDA has approved the enzyme inhibitor temsirolimus (Torisel) for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. The approval of temsirolimus follows the December 2005 approval of sorafenib (Nexavar) and the January 2006 approval of sunitinib (Sutent), which represent a new class of targeted…

  • Salvage radiation after prostate cancer surgery

    UroToday – Predicting the Outcome of Salvage Radiation Therapy for Recurrent Prostate Cancer after Radical Prostatectomy This retrospective study with a large cohort of patients treated with salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy suggests that up to 50% of patients may remain free of disease 6 years after treatment if it is instituted before their serum PSA…

  • AUA 2007 Recap for Intuitive Surgical

    This past week, Intuitive Surgical participated in the 2007 AUA (American Urological Association) Meeting held in Anaheim, California. As noted, this years AUA Meeting was clearly the most prominent in the history of Intuitive Surgical. We had a very strong showing with increased booth & program activities, higher visibility amongst leading academic & community urologists,…

  • First Live Robotic Kidney Removal Surgery at the AUA

    I was honored to be chosen by Intuitive Surgical to perform the first live robotic kidney removal surgery at this years American Urologic Association conference (press release). This was the second year in a row that I have been chosen to perform l a live surgery. Intuitive has been broadcasting live surgeries for 3 years…

  • Robotic Donor Nephrectomy for donating a kidney for transplant

    UroToday – AUA 2007 – Experience with Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Living Donor Nephrectomy This series demonstrates that robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy can be performed safely with low complication rates and outcomes similar to standard laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy.

  • European study shows that prostate cancer screening leads to less advanced prostate cancer

    UroToday – Prostate Cancer Screening Decreases the Absolute Risk of Being Diagnosed with Advanced Prostate Cancer—Results from a Prospective, Population-Based Randomized Controlled Trial Between the years1995 and 2004, 1,252 cases of CaP were diagnosed; 810 in the screening arm and 442 in the control arm. Men randomized to active screening had a 1.83-fold increased risk…

  • Robotic surgery summary- April 2007

    April has been traditionally a slow month in my practice. Last year it was the only month that I did less than 12 robotic surgeries (I only did 9). This year I performed 16 robotic surgeries in April.