C. William Schwab, II, M.D., As sistant Professor of Surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center performs robotic surgery for the treatment of kidney cancer. He explains that robotic partial nephrectomy surgery greatly reduces blood loss, postoperative pain and patient recovery time when compared to standard open surgery. "Partial nephrectomy is an especially difficult procedure as it requires a period of time in which the kidney is without blood flow," says Schwab. The surgeon must excise the tumor with a margin of healthy tissue and reconstruct the remaining healthy tissue before the kidney is damaged from lack of circulation. Dr. Schwab says that this has to be accomplished in approximately 30 minutes or damage will occur. He says that it's more beneficial to use robotic surgery for a partial nephrectomy, because for a full nephrectomy where the whole kidney is removed, time is not as much a concern. Because of the precise way the tools of the da Vinci System work, "it is the perfect tool for a partial nephrectomy and a safer way to treat smaller and more complex renal tumors, providing minimally invasive options that were never before available."
Robotic surgery is also used to remove the prostate and surrounding tissue. A radical prostatectomy is recognized as the most effective form of prostate cancer treatment. At one time, removing the prostate involved an open incision that stretched across the abdomen. Laproscopic prostatectomy took over because it offered a less-invasive alternative. Today, Vattikuti Urology Institute has introduced another generation of prostate surgery called roboticassisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. Mani Nenon, M.D., Director of the Vattikuti Urology Institute developed the robotic technique called VIP. He and his team were among the first in the world to perform prostatectomy using the da Vinci Surgical System, and they continue to drive all major innovations of the procedure. Dr. Menon says, "In my experience, robotics allows for greater surgical precision which leads to improvements in cancer control, potency and urinary function."
The University of Alabama at Birmingham was the first medical center in Alabama and among the first in the U.S. to use the system for head and neck cancers over a year ago. They have since performed more than 40 of these procedures. William Carroll, M.D., UAB head and neck surgeon and Cancer Center scientist, explained that although not all head and neck cancer patients are ideal candidates for robotic surgery and it is still early in the research process he says, "Initial results have been extremely promising." Dr. Carol and his colleagues feel that patients who undergo robotic surgery require shorter hospital stays, no feeding tubes and no swallowing rehabilitation. They also experience less pain and disfigurement.
