Prostate cancer is one of the common cancer found in men after skin cancer. It is mostly developed in aging men but sometimes can also be found in young ones. The symptoms of prostate cancer do not show themselves until the advanced stage. So, after detecting this cancer, it is usually treated with surgery.
As technology has been advancing day by day and achieving new milestones every day, it also affects doing certain things.
Like surgery in the past was performed by surgeons by hands, but not today, it is not necessary to use your hands at all; the technology has also penetrated the walls of an operation theatre to find their correct place in there.
Today, miniature-sized robotic instruments assist the robotic prostate surgeons and do most of the surgery under supervision.
Possible treatments for prostate cancer
There can be three possible treatments for this depending upon the time at which the cancer is diagnosed.
- Active surveillance
If prostate cancer is detected at an early stage, then active surveillance is quite useful. There has been constant vigil on the possible spread, which is generally low after proper care. Active surveillance is better in early diagnosis than the possible surgery as there is a possibility of post-surgery complications.
- The second one is the use of radiation therapy
- The third option that there is surgery is the removal of the prostate, also known as radical prostatectomy.
Difference between Open prostatectomy and robotic prostatectomy
Open prostatectomy is performed by an incision below the patient’s navel. Miami’s robotic prostate surgeons perform it while in robotic prostatectomy; robotic tools are used, and it is done by multiple tiny incisions usually done by the tools.
Now there is no need to panic as the tools or robots are still controlled or supervised by skilled surgeons.
Procedure robotic prostate surgeons follow
With the help of advanced technology, the robotic tools are put inside the patient’s body through the tiny keyholes in the abdomen area, which allows the surgeon to proceed with greater precision.
The procedure is less invasive than the traditional one in which the incision starts from below the belly button and extends to the pubic bone. The assistance of the robotic tools, mainly a 3-dimensional endoscope and image processing equipment, gives the surgeon a magnified and clearer vision of the delicate body parts around the prostate gland.
This helps in preventing any harm to the surrounding structures. And at last, the prostate is removed with the use of keyhole incisions.
The operating procedure needs two machines:
- The patient unit: it is the place where the patient lay down.
- Control unit: it is the unit where the surgeon sits and is separated from the patient unit.
What does a surgeon do in robotic surgery?
In surgery, with hands, there is limited wrist movement, which is no good. But with robotic tools, the range of the movement is 360 degrees, and nothing prevents essential movement.
The surgeon sits in the control unit, in front of the computer console during most of the surgery part, and manipulates the wrist movement of the tools.
Benefits of robotic prostatectomy
During the surgery has many benefits over the conventional form of surgery in the following ways:
- It allows surgeons to operate with an enhanced and clear vision, more control, and precision.
- The blood loss is usually less due to the keyhole incisions.
- With a robotic prostate surgeon, the patient has a quicker recovery period and will be discharged from the hospital in less period.
- The robotic prostate surgeons give superior and better results as compared to open surgery.
- Surgery is a sensitive procedure, and one wrong step can cost you so much. Due to the increased supervision and accuracy in robotics surgery, the risk of post-surgery complications lessens.
- Surgery leaves a scar for a very long time, particularly in large incisions, but the scarring is at the minimum level with robotics surgery.
Probable side effects
There can be some of the usual side-effects of the procedure, such as:
- Urinary incontinence
Just as in open surgery, surgery using the robotic prostate surgeon also has this risk involved. But there is nothing very much to worry about this, as in most cases, the situation gets better and improved with time.
- Erectile dysfunction
This varies from person to person according to the patient’s age and sexual function before the operation. If cancer has not spread in the nerves, the robotic prostate surgeons will use nerve-sparing techniques to have a minimum impact on the erectile function.
Science today has been doing so much in every field that things like this are possible. Who would have thought in older times that a thing like this can do wonders? The future of surgery seems to be brighter than this with rapid advances in technology.
