This is the monthly report on my robotic surgery practice in West Orange, NJ.
It was a relatively slow month. I performed 11 dvPs, and no other robotic surgery.
The main reason was a prostate conference/ vacation that I took. I went away for 7 days and did not schedule any surgery the week I was going away, so I was restricted to 2 1/2 weeks of surgery.
I had 1 important development. I developed a new technique for large median lobes that I am in the process of submitting to a journal. I think this technique will be the preferred way to approach large median lobes.
I also presented an important poster at the Prostate Cancer Symposium (a multidisciplinary international prostate cancer meeting), which I will write about later.
Click on picture to enlarge
The one thing that has changed recently is that I have seen a drop in my operating room times.
My times originally trended down for the first 75 operations. The next 100 operations had slightly increased times. I was refining my technique to help maximize outcomes. The last 75 operations have been done more similarly and with the increased experience, have been able to average about 100 minutes for robotic prostatectomies. An extra 30 minutes is needed to start and finish the operation in addition to this.
These times have been faster even though I am performing more complex surgery.
For the upcoming months, I see an increase in volume that will be made even quicker with me working in Denville at St. Clares Hospital. I will look forward to working with Dr. Marc Greenstein at St Clares. This will help volume a small amount.
The larger impact is going to be the expected arrival of a daVinci S system at SBMC in Livingston. This has been my groups main hospital for many years and will be a great option for patients that do not want to travel to Newark.
We have the arrival of our new associate, Dr. Brent Yanke in July which will likely add overall volume to my group, but will lower my volume some.