View chart of Dr. Savatta’s robotic surgery growth
For October I performed 15 robotic operations, 12 robotic prostate removals, 1 removal of part of a kidney, and 1 bladder and prostate for bladder cancer.
I have performed 130 robotic prostatectomies in the last 12 months and 113 so far this year.
In the last year I have performed 167 total robotic operations in the last 12 months and 143 so far this year.
The growth is increasing and I have a record amount of robotic surgery cases scheduled, about 30. The operating room times I have decreased with even my newer techniques at nerve sparing to the point where we can comfortably do 3 robotic operations in 1 day.
We are getting close to 20 per month, which will probably be as much as I can do by myself. Our group is recruiting a robotic surgeon to joining us next summer which should help the program grow further.
The operations of note were:
A robotic prostatectomy after failed cryosurgery. This was my first and was more difficult than the typical prostatectomy after radiation.
I also did a dvP on the largest patient. His BMI was 43. The surgery took a little over 3 hours with lymph nodes and went very well. His catheter was removed in 1 week.
I performed my most difficult prostatectomy. I thought it was going to be easy, but found several congenital abnormalities including bilateral ureteroceles, extra bladder tissue at the bladder neck, and abnormal vasculature. It took over 4 hours, but I successfully was able to perform the operation robotically.
I performed my first repeat robotic operation. A patient of mine who had a robotic partial nephrectomy now had a robotic prostatectomy. I have a second patient who had a robotic nephrectomy scheduled for a robotic prostatectomy as well. I believe these are the first patients who will have benefited from robotic surgery more than once.