The Robotic Surgeon Blog

  • Radiation and hormonal therapy may lead to penile shortening.

    Prostate cancer treatment may shorten penis – Yahoo! News NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Men who receive combination treatment with hormone therapy plus radiation for local or locally advanced prostate cancer may experience a significant reduction in penile length, according to a report in the January issue of the Journal of Urology . It has…

  • Men with sons may be less likely to have prostate cancer

    ScienceDaily: Men With No Sons More At Risk For Prostate Cancer, According To New Study “We surveyed vital status and cancer incidence, and found a strong trend for a decrease in prostate cancer risk as the number of sons increased,” said Susan Harlap, MD, professor of clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health,…

  • Are da Vinci Pyeloplasties "Experimental"

    I recently had an encounter with United Healthcare that initially resulted in a denial of a request to treat one of their patients with UPJ stenosis (partial obstruction of the drainage leading from the kidney to the bladder) with a robotic repair of the condition. The denial was initially based on the perception that such…

  • Patients with diabetes may be at decreased risk of developing prostate cancer

    UroToday – A Meta-Analysis of Diabetes Mellitus and the Risk of Prostate Cancer A Meta-Analysis of Diabetes Mellitus and the Risk of Prostate Cancer BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) – In 2004 a meta-analysis reported that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) had a statistically significant decrease in risk (9%) of developing prostate cancer (CaP). This has now…

  • Loosing weight may help prevent prostate cancer

    Study ties weight loss to prostate cancer risk | Chicago Tribune Study ties weight loss to prostate cancer risk By Daniel Yee Associated Press Published December 27, 2006 “”ATLANTA — A new study has found that losing weight reduces the risk of an aggressive form of prostate cancer. After tracking the weight of nearly 70,000…

  • Urinary side effects after brachytherapy

    UroToday – The Pathophysiology of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms After Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer “”BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) – Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) following brachytherapy are usually considered to subside within a few months of treatment. However, a subset of patients experience persistent LUTS and Dr. Jerry Blavias and associates from Cornell University characterize this…

  • Prostate cancer site by AstraZeneca

    There is a decent website from a pharmaceutical company: prostateinfo.com. It does a decent job of going over the basics involved in screening and explaining the treatment options. My one big criticism is that is out of date when it comes to robotic surgery and how accepted it is, making up about 30-35% of all…

  • Cryosurgery better than watchful waiting for elderly?

    Straightfromthedoc: JAMA Study Confirms Prostate Cancer Treatment is Preferable over “Watchful Waiting” According to Endocare President, Chairman and CEO Craig T. Davenport: “This study offers further scientific evidence that ‘watchful waiting’ may not be the best option for many patients, particularly when there are effective, minimally invasive treatments like cryoablation available. Based on the results…

  • Robotic Surgery Growth: November 2006

    November 2006 robotic breakdown For November I performed 21 robotic operations: 15 robotic prostate removals (dvP), 2 removals of a part of a kidney (robotic simple nephrectomy), 1 kidney (robotic nephrectomy), 2 removals of parts of a prostate for BPH (simple prostatectomy), and 1 reconstruction. This was the 1st month that I performed 20 robotic…