Researchers Conduct Medical Analysis of Robotic Bladder Cancer Surgery

Surgical removal of cancerous bladder, based on robotic technology is a new technological advancement approach to the traditional open or invasive surgery such as radical cystectomy.

According to a new study found in journal European Urology, robotic surgery shows increased patient survival than in open surgery. In robotic-assisted bladder surgery, smaller incisions are made posing reduced trauma to the patients. The surgeon gets a clear 3-D anatomical view during the procedure. This surgical procedure reduces the need for post-surgery intravenous nutrition. However, robotic-assisted procedures are expensive.

The director of minimally invasive surgery at UCLA’s department of urology, Dr. Jim Hu along with colleagues at Georgetown University Hospital and Harvard Medical School, conducted research using the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample with data from 1,050 hospitals across 44 states. By investigating 1,444 traditional open surgeries and 224 robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedures conducted in 2009, the researchers found that 13% of all radical cystectomies in 2009 were done based on robotic technologies.

With the help of statistical analysis, the researchers collected and compared the two procedures based on hospital-level information such as complications, in-patient deaths, cost of procedure and hospital stay. The findings state that:

• Open radical cystectomy showed 2.5% patient death in-hospital, which was absent in robotic surgery.
• Patients with robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery showed fewer in-patient complications than with traditional open procedure (49.1% vs. 63.8%).
• After the robotic procedure, only 6.4% patients required parenteral nutrition, while the statistics is 13.3% with open-surgery counterparts.
• Both surgeries require eight days hospital stay.
• Total surgical expenditure for the robotic procedure is over $3,000 more than traditional open surgery.
• There are fewer women patients opting robotic procedure.
• Around 95.7% of robotic procedures and 73.9% of traditional procedures were conducted at teaching hospitals.
• Key lymph nodes were removed for 76.8% patients in robotic procedure and 67% in open procedure, during surgery.