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 and robotic operations is 182.
At the time of my robotic prostatectomies, my team also performed 3 robotic inguinal hernia repairs.
The highlights this month include:
2 patients with prior laparoscopic hernia repairs with mesh having successful dvPs. One of these patients had recurrent hernias on both sides and these were fixed at the same time as his robotic prostate surgery. He flew to NJ from Florida since his local robotic surgeons advised against surgery due to his previous lap hernia surgery.
My team also fixed a total of 3 hernias at the same time of dvP. We have performed 19 of these concomitant hernia repairs and avoided these patients to undergo another operation in the future to have the hernias repaired.
I also performed my first dvP on a patient with Kaiser Permanante insurance. Unfortunately Kaiser thinks that robotics is the same as open surgery and refused to pay for his surgery if done robotically. He had a very successful operation and his recovery should be better than anything he would have experienced with an open operation.
On a negative note: I experienced my 2nd robotic failure in 182 operations. I was performing a robotic nephrectomy and converted to a laparoscopic nephrectomy when the robot failed. The only other time this happened, we brought in one of the other 2 robots we have at Newark Beth Israel to finish the operation. With a kidney removal I think the recovery is similar to a laparoscopic operation, although I prefer performing them robotically.