The Robotic Surgeon Blog

  • AUA Prostate Cancer review at medscape

    An excellent review on the abstracts presented at the AUA was done online at medscape. It offers 1.5 credits for physicians. One quote that I thought was interesting was: These 2 studies taken together indicate that there is a steep learning curve for laparoscopic prostatectomy, even if the robot is used. It is probably medicolegally…

  • Previous Laparoscopic Hernia Repair with mesh in prostate cancer patients

    This past month 2 patients of mine with prior laparoscopic hernia repairs with mesh had successful dvPs. I have done several of these now and do not get overly concerned with this finding in a patient. One of the patient’s was from Florida and was advised against robotic prostatectomy from 2 urologists that performed robotics…

  • Robotic Surgery Growth: July 06 update

    This is a monthly update on the growth of Robotic Surgery in my practice. In July I performed 17 robotic operations. 14 were daVinci prostatetcomies for prostate cancer, 1 was a robotic simple prostatectomy for BPH, and 2 were kidney removals for kidney cancer. The total number of robotic prostatectomies I have performed is 143…

  • Does radiation therapy for prostate cancer lead to rectal cancer?

    In contrast to a study from the University of Minnesota, there is a Canadian study that concludes that there is not a increased risk of rectal cancer when adjusted for age.

  • Adrenal surgery: right vs left

    I have performed several robotic adrenalectomies and about a dozen laparoscopic adrenalectomies. I have had excellent results with robotic and lap, and have not had any trouble with either the right of the left side. There is a study from China that concludes that right or left laparoscopic adrenalectomies are similar in outcomes. I have…

  • Family history in prostate cancer

    There is an article from physicians at the Cleveland clinic in the journal of clinical oncology: Aggressiveness of Familial Prostate Cancer The important points for men who have a family history of prostate cancer is that the 10 year biochemical relapse-free survival were worse for patients with a family history of prostate cancer before 1992,…

  • Robotic Surgery Summary- June 06: focus: performing general surgery operations at the time of robotic prostatectomy

    This is a monthly update on the growth of Robotic Surgery in my practice. In June I performed 18 robotic operations. 17 were daVinci prostatetcomies for prostate cancer and 1 was a robotic nephro-ureterectomy. The total number of robotic prostatectomies is 129 and robotic operations is 165. At the time of my robotic prostatectomies, my…

  • When having insurance doesn’t pay: Robotic Prostate Surgery

    When I first started this blog I tried to be fair about my views on different subjects, but also to be positive about them. This is my first negative post and it has to do with the power of HMOs and their ability to prevent their patients from access to some technologies. Patients every day…

  • Rural parts of the US are purchasing daVinci robots: West Virginia

    Source: Huntington News I believe this will be the 2nd robot in the state.