NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Surgeons Are Using a Robot to Aid in Prostate Removal
Director James Cameron's bleak vision of the future in his "Terminator" movies depicts a world annihilated by killer-robots, ruthlessly trying to eliminate their human creators. But in reality, robots are helping to heal patients during surgeries at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, so that they'll be back to their normal lives faster and with fewer complications than patients undergoing more traditional surgical methods.New Study Shows Dramatically Improved Continence With Robot
"Too often, the threat of incontinence can be a key factor in a patient's decision for or against prostatectomy," says Dr. E. Darracott Vaughan, an attending urologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, emeritus chairman of the Department of Urology, and The James J. Colt Professor of Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Use of the robot has helped the surgeons and their team develop a new means of improving urinary continence in prostatectomy patients.
Dr. Tewari and Dr. Vaughan have developed a procedure that takes only an additional two to five minutes to rebuild the anatomy of a prostatectomy patient to improve urinary continence.
"We reconstruct the major anatomical players controlling urinary continence," says Dr. Tewari. "The technique entails no extra cost and very little added time in the operating room, although surgeons would have to be trained, of course."
Sixteen weeks after the surgery, 95 percent of the 50 patients who received the new procedure achieved full continence, according to findings published in a recent issue of the journal Urology.
Dr. Tewari has performed about 700 robot-aided prostatectomies at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell.
"Advantages of robotic prostatectomy over the traditional surgery include a quicker recovery time, minimal pain, reduced blood loss, shorter hospital stays, and better cosmetics. Because robotic surgery is so precise, it has only a minimal impact on the patient's quality of life – including prompt recovery of post-surgery sexual function and urinary control," says Dr. Tewari.
Dr. Tewari led a lecture, fielded questions from reporters, and showed an astounding 3-D movie, which exposed the audience to a surgeon's-eye-view of a robotic prostatectomy – the robot assisted surgical removal of the prostate for prostate cancer patients. In addition, he presented data showing that robotic surgery reduces hospital-stay by two-thirds, and with fewer complications, including only one-tenth the blood loss, compared with traditional surgery.
Following the lecture, attendees were invited to "test-drive" the surgical-robot – The da Vinci Surgical System – using the robotic "hands" to pick up tiny rubber bands and coins to get a feel for what it is like to use the device.
During operations, surgeons sit at a separate console, which displays the view from a camera that is inserted inside the body of the patient, and the robot's arms are controlled by intuitively designed hand and foot levers and pedals.
Through the robot's viewfinder, Dr. Tewari looks inside the body in 3-D and at 10-times normal human eyesight, which helps him navigate and spare essential muscles and nerves that control erectile and urinary function – structures at risk during prostatectomy surgery.
For media inquiries please contact Andrew Klein at 212-821-0560 or ank2017@med.cornell.edu
