5 Ways Robotic Prostatectomy Beats Traditional Open Prostate Surgery

When you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you have to quickly make a multitude of important decisions to be sure you receive the best and most comprehensive treatment possible while minimizing the treatment side effects. One key decision is whether to undergo traditional radical prostatectomy or to opt for a minimally invasive prostate cancer treatment, such as the cutting-edge laparoscopic robotic radical prostatectomy using the minimally invasive da Vinci® robot system.

Why Choose the da Vinci Laparoscopic Procedure?

The following are five of the top reasons why the da Vinci laparoscopic surgery alternative will result in the best outcome with the fewest side effects:

1. Smaller Incisions

In a traditional surgical approach to radical prostatectomy, the Beverly Hills surgeon creates a long incision of 6” to 8” from the bottom of your belly button to the pubic bone. This opens up a large field of potential infection. The surgeon must often rest the long-handled instruments used in traditional surgery against the incision wall to create leverage sufficient to reach, dissect, and remove cancer, which may traumatize healthy tissue. The large incision takes longer to heal, increasing the chances for postsurgical bacterial infection and scarring.

With the da Vinci system of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, 4 to 5 small incisions (most less than 1 inch, one may be up to 2 inches) are made. These smaller fields are inherently less liable to bacterial infection as a smaller amount of tissue is exposed. The sterile da Vinci robotic operating arms are guided by the surgeon into the specially designed sterile ports that go through these incisions, allowing them to accomplish their tasks precisely and quickly without the need for leverage or contact with the incision walls. This minimizes trauma to the incised skin.

The smaller incisions require fewer sutures, heal more quickly, and create less or even no scarring.

2. More Precision

The skill of the surgeon is as important in da Vinci laparoscopy as it is in traditional surgery. Therefore, the most important decision you make is who will perform your operation. The da Vinci system allows your Los Angeles surgeon a greater degree of visualization, dexterity, and precision than is possible using a traditional approach.

The da Vinci system’s Surgeon Console provides your surgeon a 10x magnified and three-dimensional view of the operating field during the entire operation. In a traditional operation, the surgeon has to stand for the entire procedure and look through the operating site to an often restricted view of the prostate and other structures. With da Vinci, your surgeon can choose a variety of high-resolution magnifications to visualize the prostate and surrounding tissue to a degree that is not possible in standard surgery. The surgeon can enhance, refine and optimize operative images using image synchronizers, high-intensity illuminators, and dual camera-controlled units.

As your surgeon begins the operation, the da Vinci System’s dexterous 1-cm robotic arms mirror the movements of the surgeon’s hands, wrists, and fingers, its sensitive electronics automatically scaling the movements to the size of the operating site. The degree of precision that is possible during this motion-scaling surgery for prostate cancer is nothing short of revolutionary.

Such precision greatly facilitates the identification and clean removal of all of the prostate tissue and significantly lessens the chance that something will be missed. The greater degree of visualization and the precision of the motion-scaling surgery also ensure that more of the healthy areas adjacent to the prostate will remain intact. It reduces trauma or damage to the nerves and other tissue that control essential functions such as urination and penile erections, causes less pain, and reduces the amount of bleeding.

3. Quicker Recovery (Shorter Hospital Stay)

Taken together, the greater precision and visualization, smaller incisions, increased dexterity, and shorter operation time means that your recovery will be faster with da Vinci than with traditional surgery in LA.

Because hospital rooms in LA and across the world are not as sterile as operating theaters, there is a greater risk of bacterial infection postoperatively. But with the da Vinci system, your smaller incision sites will heal faster and therefore have a far lesser chance of infection. The resulting scars are small or even invisible. Because surrounding tissue is not traumatized and no healthy tissue is inadvertently removed, healing time is also expedited.

4. Potential for Lower Side Effects

Although all surgery carries with it a high degree of risk, the da Vinci motion-scaling surgical system vastly lowers the incidence of side effects, most of which are caused either by infection or by inadvertent injury to surrounding healthy tissue. The da Vinci system, therefore, reduces the chances of unwanted outcomes such as urinary incontinence and impotence.

In addition, because the da Vinci system minimizes the amount of scar tissue on the interior walls of the incision, you will avoid the buildup of scar tissue that can sometimes interfere with how well the prostate functions postoperatively. Learn about the risks of traditional radical prostatectomy at WebMD.com.

5. Less Blood Loss

Multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that blood loss is much less with the da Vinci system compared to that of traditional surgery. With the da Vinci robotic system, you should also expect significantly less bleeding (less than one-third), a shorter hospital stay, early removal of the urinary catheter, and less need for pain medication. You will be able to resume normal activities within one to two weeks after your minimally invasive robotic surgery in Los Angeles.

Call Comprehensive Urology in Beverly Hills at 310-499-2756 or use our online email form to schedule a consultation now.

Next, read about The Latest Advancements in Prostate Cancer Treatments