While sharp debate continues among medical professionals as to whether a radical prostatectomy performed with the assistance of a robotic device is more beneficial than the traditional open surgery method, research just published by investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) shows new evidence supporting the safety of the robotic procedure - including what is believed to be one of the lowest complication rates to date. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Robotic prostatectomy allows a surgeon to look through a set of three-dimensional goggles at a console, while controlling a set of robotic arms across the room that maneuver instrument tips the size of a dime. Studies at high-volume centers have shown that the robotic procedure, which has become more commonplace over the past decade, results in a shorter hospital stay, less blood loss, and faster recovery of sexual and urinary functions compared to the traditional surgical method of radical retropubic prostatectomy. In 2008, 60 percent of radical prostatectomies performed in the U.S. were completed with the robotic method (British Journal of Urology International, 2008).
Isaac Yi Kim, MD, PhD, chief of CINJ's Section of Urologic Oncology and associate professor of surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has performed over 650 robotic prostatectomies over the last five years. This latest study, which appears in the August online issue of the Journal of Endourology ahead of the September print edition (Vol. 24, No. 9), retrospectively examined the medical records associated with the first 200 procedures performed (between January 2006 and December 2007) by Dr. Kim at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital -- the Flagship Hospital of CINJ. The patients were divided into four groups according to order of case number. Complications both during and after surgery were determined according to Clavien classification, which is the common scale used to help identify level of surgical complications.
Overall, 24 men (12 percent) experienced various complications either during surgery or following the procedure for more than one year. Five of the men experienced complications during surgery and 19 exhibited postoperative complications.