According to the American Cancer Society, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. Luckily, there are many treatment options available to men diagnosed with prostate cancer, including robotic surgery.

“Although the da Vinci was originally developed for cardiac surgeries,” says Jay Hortenstine, MD, a urologist with Gainesville Urology, “applications for urologic surgical cases were quickly identified, and now the radical prostatectomy is probably one of the most common procedures performed with robotics.”

“The da Vinci Surgical System is ideally suited for most prostatectomy cases,” adds David Woo, MD, a urologist with Gainesville Urology. “We are able to view the surgery in 10-times-magnification, three-dimensional, high definition color and at angles better than ever before because of the optimal camera placement that the da Vinci allows within the body. Since the prostate gland is located in such a delicate position in the body, this visual optimization is a tremendous benefit to the surgeon, allowing for a more precise surgery and a greater chance of preserving continence and erectile function and decreasing blood loss during surgery.”

“Robotic instruments articulate like the human wrist, as opposed to conventional laparoscopy where the instruments have limited range of motion,” says Dr. Woo. “This dexterity and the wrist action capability allow a surgeon to get around corners and to work in tight spaces to precisely mimic the surgeon’s movement allowing for a very good cancer excision procedure with quick recovery times.”

“We see a lot of medical technologies that are attempts at re-creating the wheel, but turn out to be neither new nor improved,” says Dr. Hortenstine. “But robotics is truly an innovative technique that will continue to revolutionize the surgical environment.”

For certain patients, the da Vinci is now also being used at NGMC for lymph node dissections to determine if the cancer has spread beyond the area of the prostate.

Like all new technology, robotic surgery is not appropriate for all patients. For more information about urologic surgery applications for the da Vinci Surgical System, call the Cancer Center at NGMC at 770-219-8800.

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