The Robotic Surgeon Blog

  • Watchful waiting for prostate cancer

    UroToday – European Urology – Watching the Face of Janus- Active Surveillance as a Strategy to Reduce Overtreatment for Localised Prostate Cancer A good abstract by Swedish urologists that addresses many of the issues for watchful waiting. It points out that the best candidates have a small amount of gleason 6 cancer. Most men did…

  • Surgeon hand pain during laparoscopic kidney removal

    UroToday – Hand Pain during Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Nephrectomy- An Ischemic Event? One of my reasons for telling visiting urologists that I prefer robotic kidney surgery to laparoscopy is how much better I feel physically during a robotic vs. a laparoscopic surgery. This abstract discusses the pain encountered by urologists during hand assist nephrectomies. I agree…

  • Robotic Surgery Growth: August 06 update

    View chart of Dr Savatta’s robotic volume This is a monthly update on the growth of Robotic Surgery in my practice. In August I performed 12 robotic operations. 10 were daVinci prostatetcomies for prostate cancer, 1 was a nephrectomy for cancer, and 1 was a partial nephrectomy for cancer. The total number of robotic prostatectomies…

  • Bloodless Prostate Cancer Surgery

    I have heard the term Bloodless Surgery many times and am familiar with it. A google search will also give someone who may not be familiar with the term a better understanding of how it is used. There are many things that can be done to help avoid blood transfusions such as minimizing blood draws,…

  • A new way to give pain medicine after surgery

    Some smart guys decided that if fentanyl patches worked, why not use the same technology with a patient-controlled delivery system — sort of a fentanyl patch with an on-demand component. We have had for many years patient controlled IV narcotic delivery systems (PCAs), and a transdermal delivery system would theoretically be similar. The FDA has…

  • Side effects of radiation for prostate cancer

    Out of the group of 510 patients, who responded to the side effect section, 299 patients (59%) stated that there had been side effects and 211 patients (41%) stated that none had occurred. The following side effects were mentioned: leakage (17%), alguria (14%), diarrhoea (13%), voiding dysfunctions with residual urine (12%), proctitis (10%),urinary incontinence (6%),…

  • Genetics and inherited prostate cancer risk

    Prostate Cancer: Major Genetic Risk Factor Found: “Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a DNA segment on chromosome 8 that is a major risk factor for prostate cancer, especially in African American men. The paper appears in the August electronic edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (also see PNAS’s news tip…

  • New urology blogger

    A friend and colleague of mine has joined the blogging world. Dr. Marc Greenstein has performed many robotic surgeries with me including robotic prostatectomies, nephrectomies, partial nephrectomies, and a bladder diverticulectomy at Newark Beth Israel. He is a leader in laparoscopic and minimally invasive urology at St. Claire’s hospital in Denviile, NJ. You can read…

  • Hopkins researchers find a new test for prostate cancer screening

    Hopkins Researchers Find Better Blood Test for Prostate Cancer Source: consumeraffairs.com New studies of a blood protein recently identified at Johns Hopkins, early prostate cancer antigen-2 (EPCA-2), may change the way men are screened for prostate cancer — a disease that kills tens of thousands of men every year. Results showed that the EPCA-2 test…