This is a monthly update on the growth of Robotic Surgery in my practice.
Original blog entry about robotic surgery growth was in November of 2005 and is updated monthly.
For January, I performed 14 robotic operations including 9 prostate removals for cancer, 3 kidney removals for tumor, one ureteral reimplant, and a bladder and prostate removal in an elderly gentleman.
The highlights for January were:
Prostates: All 9 patients went home the following day making it 25 straight patients discharged the day following surgery.
I performed our most obese patient by BMI in 3 hours and 45 minutes and he was also discharged home within 24 hours.
Kidneys: We removed our largest tumor through a bikini cut incision- it was 10 cm or 4 inches plus the kidney.
Reimplant: We performed our first ureteral reimplant for scar tissue from a prior stone.
I unfortunately had complications this month as well, although neither of the 2 were related to robotics or surgery, but surgeons consider complications that happen in the postoperative period as surgical complications even if they are medical in nature.
One of our kidney patients also had her ureter and a piece if bladder removed open. She was anemic to start with and was our first robotic patient to receive a blood transfusion, about 2 days after surgery. She also had other medical complications.
Our bladder cancer patient had medical problems after going home.
I have completed 95 robotic operations so far including 70 robotic prostatectomies and have 15 operations (14 dvp) scheduled for February.