Aug 18 2010
A new study was conducted by The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) by monitoring the outcome from the first 200 Robotic Prostatectomy surgeries conducted between January 2006 and December 2007 at the flagship Hospital of CINJ and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
It was reported that 5% of patients developed complications during surgery, 12% experienced inconvenience either during or post surgery and 19 faced complications post surgery. Patients were established as grade I, without the need for therapy. Nine men were classified as grade II, which is defined as complications requiring treatment with drugs. Six men were listed as grade IIIb complications, which are identified as complications requiring surgical intervention, with or without the need for general anesthesia. Grade IV indicates lethal complications and grade V represents patient’s death due to complications. In this study, grade IV or V complications were lacking among the identified group.
No significant discrepancies were accounted for between the group with complications and the group without, in terms of age, body-mass index, Gleason score and operative time. The study showed that those patients who endured complications did have a higher prostate-specific antigen level, larger estimated blood loss and longer hospital stay and there was no need for a blood transfusion for any of the 200 patients during the procedures. The entire research report was published in the August online issue of the Journal of Endourology.
David B. Samadi, the Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City has performed over 3,000 robotic laparoscopic prostate surgeries. According to him, this study is encouraging the new field of Robotic Prostatectomy since it demonstrates one of the lowest overall complication rates of 12% without any grade four or five complications. He also discussed the major advantages of Robotic Prostatectomy which includes shorter hospital stays, lower blood loss, and faster recovery and also believes that surgical experience is the key factor to the success of this surgery.