The Robotic Surgeon Blog

  • Quality of life after a negative biopsy

    UroToday – “False-Positive” Prostate Cancer Screenings Assessed “Men can discuss the pros and cons of getting a PSA test with their doctors. However, once a man decides to go ahead and get a PSA test, if its results are abnormal, he typically should have ongoing follow-up and surveillance for prostate cancer,” Katz said. Katz said…

  • PSA screening lowers risk of finding advanced prostate cancer

    UroToday – European Urology – Prostate Cancer Screening Decreases the Absolute Risk of Being Diagnosed with Advanced Prostate Cancer—Results from a Prospective, Population-Based Randomized Controlled Trial Conclusions: Even though the reduction in metastasis at the time of diagnosis seen in the present study is a prerequisite for a successful prostate cancer-screening program, the ultimate outcome…

  • Choosing a prostate cancer therapy option for a patient who doesn’t have the capacity to understand the options

    UroStream: Does not read When I first saw this patient, there was a note in the chart from the front desk saying “patient does not read”. I asked if this was a deliberate decision from the patient, or whether they had meant to say that the patient was illiterate and could not read. Unfortunately, the…

  • What is a normal PSA?

    Age Adjustment of PSA Measures Might Improve Prostate Cancer Screening: Source (Medscape) The team concludes that standard PSA and PSA velocity cutoff points could be decreased to 2.0 ng/ml and 0.40 ng/ml per year in order to improve cancer detection in these younger men. The author of an editorial comment, Dr. H. Ballentine Carter of…

  • Robotic Surgery Update- February 2007 with a focus on robotic times

    This is the monthly report on my robotic surgery practice in West Orange, NJ. It was a relatively slow month. I performed 11 dvPs, and no other robotic surgery. The main reason was a prostate conference/ vacation that I took. I went away for 7 days and did not schedule any surgery the week I…

  • What is proper etiquette for the newly diagnosed cancer patient/doctor relationship?

    I received a phone call yesterday from a young man that was newly diagnosed with prostate cancer from the southeast. He was interested in robotic surgery and had several questions. He told me he found a local urologist who performs robotic surgery and asked me what kind of questions he could ask. He was turned…

  • Robotic Tips for Surgeons and Teams #1

    This is a new topic to help explain some of the workings of the robotic systems. This tip on black balance, white balance, and scope alignment comes form Sue Belluardo, my local intuitive surgical rep. Remember 3 things: – Black Balance is Camera Head Specific – White Balance is Scope Specific – Scope Alignment is…

  • Robotic reliability

    I often get asked about the reliability of the daVinci robot and can it break down. I also received a comment from a reader about a bad experience with her husbands robotic surgery. In my 299 robotic operations, we have had several problems. The daVinci robots are complicated mechanical devices. They can break down. Robots…

  • Urinary function study comparing lap and open RRP

    Medscape: Prostatectomy Approaches Have Similar Continence Impact Open radical retropubic prostatectomy and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy to do not lead to significantly different rates of urinary incontinence postoperatively, Canadian researchers report in the February issue of the Journal of Urology.