Prostate news article, April 2005
| ROBOTIC SURGERY
IN THE UK : ESTABLISHING A PROGRAMME AND EMERGING ROLE
P. Dasgupta, A. Hemal* and K. Rose, Guy's and St. Thomas' Robotics Group, Dept. of Urology, Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital and GKT School of Medicine, London, UK, and *Vatikutti Urology Institute, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, USA. British Journal of Urology, (International) 95 p. 723-728. Reviewed by: Mr Zach Dovey, MRCP FRCS |
As a follow up to the results of a study from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA, which were placed on the website in January 2005 (Laparoscopic and Robotic Radical Prostatectomy: what are the real advantages ? J. Smith), we have an article which expands on the UK experience of Robotic Surgery in Urology from Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals in London.
Robotic urological surgery combines the advantages of using robotics technology and laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery. Basically it gives the surgeon superb visualisation of the operative field on camera so preventing any traction of the blood vessels and nerves and allows extreme precision with cutting and suturing. In the future, this may produce a better operation than radical prostatectomy, which is the current surgical treatment for prostate cancer.
The authors make the point that introducing this kind of extremely expensive technology into an institution such as the UK National Health Service, which is free at the point of delivery, quite rightly has a lower priority than say, stroke rehabilitation or diabetes.
Trials operations were performed on prosthetic kidney models, and following this the surgeons travelled to the Vatikutti Institute in Detroit, where they have a great deal of experience in robotic surgery, to be "mentored" in the different robotic urological operations.
At the time of writing the article, the authors had performed one robotic radical prostatectomy which lasted just over 2 hours, and went very well. The patient did not require a blood transfusion, and the histology showed Gleason grade 3 + 3, with negative surgical margins. They will continue to evaluate patients as they do more and more procedures and gain more experience.
This new technological advance may turn out to be a very exciting development for prostate cancer and prostate diseases.