Robotic Prostate Surgery

You remember watching that episode of House MD, wherein he hallucinates that he kills a patient with a huge surgical robot to snap himself out of his hallucination? Did you look at those huge robotic arms and say to yourself "Look at that thing! Of course, he's hallucinating!". Well, in a case where real art imitates reel art, technology has in fact come up with a robotic approach to deal with patients and surgeries. Yes, robotic surgeries, whether it is a robotic cardiothoracic surgery or a robotic prostate surgery, the fact is that all of these options do exist and patients are curious to know more about them.

A robotic prostatectomy is a surgery wherein a cancerous prostate gland is removed by making minimal (keyhole) incisions with high precision, with the help of robotic equipment. Given below are details regarding robotic prostate surgery advantages and disadvantages compared to regular prostate surgeries for removal of this gland.

Advantages

One of the main advantages of a robotic prostatectomy is the fact that since it is a minimally invasive procedure, the patient usually complains of less pain and less amount of skin scarring. Furthermore, this is especially a good option for people who have low hemoglobin levels or who are hypovolemic, as there is less amount of blood loss, as compared to traditional surgery. Also, the time for which the patient needs to stay in the hospital is significantly lesser in the case of a robotic prostatectomy. Hence, as the prostate surgery recovery is faster, he can quickly return to his routine activities after a while.

The good news is that it is claimed that robotic prostate surgery recovery time is lesser when compared to regular prostate cancer surgery recovery time because of the smaller incisions and also because compared to an open surgery, this surgery is not invasive, so the nerves and vessels present in the vicinity of the prostate are not affected. However, whether a robotic prostate surgery affects the prognosis of the cancer is not proven yet and there are no studies being conducted for the same, as of now.

Disadvantages

On the downside, there have been a few stray reports of people complaining of robotic prostate surgery side effects like incontinence and sexual problems after undergoing a this surgery. However, the fact is that for a person to be able to really judge whether or not his sexual health has been adversely affected, he will need to wait a while to attain perfectly normal erections again after the surgery. This recovery also depends on various factors such as age, emotional health, type of partner, any complications that may have risen during the surgery, etc.

One of the main factors that may not work in favor of a robotic prostatectomy is the cost of this surgery. The robotic prostate surgery cost could go up to USD 1500-2000. The reason why the cost is higher compared to traditional surgery is because of the extra equipment required and because this procedure needs to be done by an experienced surgeon. Furthermore, there are still a lot of surgeons that prefer the old school method or at least have reverted to using laparoscopic surgery or laser prostate surgery for removal of the prostate because they are not comfortable with the huge machinery involved.

It might come as a shock to you but just last year, around 85% of the patients who underwent a prostatectomy, opted for a robotic prostatectomy. Hence, this technology is slowly catching up. Furthermore, seeing the prostate cancer facts, it is said that every sixth American male develops prostate cancer symptoms. Hence, in due course of time, a robotic prostate surgery may just become the norm of the day.