Robotic Prosatectomy at the NCCN

Even surgeons who once favored traditional ‘open’ methods of cutting and
suturing during prostate or bladder-cancer operations have learned to
love the joystick-operated robot, said Timothy G. Wilson, M.D., director
of the Prostate Cancer Program at City of Hope Cancer Center, at the
National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s 12th Annual Conference, March
14-18.
Studies show that men undergoing radical prostatectomy go home sooner
and regain bladder control and sexual function weeks earlier when the
robot is employed, Wilson said.
‘If you can save somebody three months of diaper time, that’s
important,’ he said, noting that patients’ two top postoperative worries
are incontinence and impotence. Wilson predicted Food and Drug go-ahead
for other manufacturers’ robotic devices in the next few years, bringing
competition to a field now dominated by Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci
device, approved in 2000 to perform advanced surgical techniques.