Robot-Assisted Prostate Cancer Surgery Leads to Better Outcomes

According to a new study published in the current issue of European Urology, robot-assisted surgery is far more successful than radical “open” surgery in the treatment of prostate cancer in the United States.

The research is the first nationwide comparison of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) results with the standard, open radical prostatectomy (ORP) results, using a 20% population sample.

Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital’s Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) found that:

• 19,278 patients underwent RARP or ORP in 647 medical institutions between October 2008 and December 2009
• Of those, 11,889 underwent RARP and 7389 underwent ORP
• RARP patients were less likely than ORP patients to need a blood transfusion, have a prolonged hospital stay, and suffer complications during or after surgery, including cardiac, respiratory, and vascular problems

In the past 10 years, “we’ve seen a significant trend toward the use of minimally invasive approaches to RP for the treatment of prostate cancer, particularly in the US,” says Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, a fellow at VUI and lead author of the study.

Most significantly, in nearly every outcome studied, the researchers found “superior” results with RARP, including the number of necessary blood transfusions, complications during and after surgery, and length of hospital stay.

According to Mani Menon, MD, director of Henry Ford’s VUI, 98% of Henry Ford patients go home within 24 hours of the operation, and major complications are less than 2%.

Source: Henry Ford Health Center.