Robot assisted prostate surgery? Uhh--you first.

(Credit: da Vinci Prostatectomy)

Surgeons are using a four armed robot to perform prostate surgery.

The procedure is called the da Vinci Prostatectomy, "a new, less-invasive approach to prostate removal," according to the Swedish Medical Center.

Actually, it's no joke; an estimated 230,000 men in the US are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and the da Vinci Surgical System promises to help surgeons perform the surgery with greater precision while speeding patient recovery.

Interested? Call 1-800-SWEDISH and let us know how it goes.

[ckhal]

DaVinci surgery

cutting edge, but not as much as you think. We are doing this here in the states
and have been for some time now. Many centers, including here in Louisville KY
have a great experience with the davinci. It is not like a robot is doing the
procedure, it is all guided by a surgeon. Current applications as I understand
include not only prostate surgery but also cardiac applications.

[make_or_break]

Recommend you check out the links before posting

[i]We are doing this here in the states and have been for some time now.[/i]

So is Swedish Medical Center, since Swedish is a local [i]Seattle, WA[/i] hospital group.

[rwforce]

Better than the alternative

I just had it done at Swedish last week. I was home the next day, projected recovery time, 2-3 weeks. One central 2 inch incision, plus four 1/2 inch cuts in the abdomen. No transfusion required

Traditional open surgery involves a seven inch incision, 7-10 days in the hospital, 6-8 week recovery time, one to two pints of blood for transfusion.

It was invented in Germany in 1986--a number of hospitals in the US have the equipment.

[jeffk08]

This is not new

This technology has been in the US for 5+ years and is featured at many high-end medical institutions. The primary reason it's not more widely-adopted is that the robot costs over $1 million and the reimbursement for robot-assisted procedures isn't any higher than normal. Makes it much harder to pay off the investment.

[bryan1030]

Interested in viewing these type of surgeries?

Check out www.OR-Live.com. Archives of numerous robotic prostatectomy
surgeries can be viewed