Robotic prostate surgery comes with trade-off Study: Increasingly used procedure tied to lasting incontinence, impotence

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33291388/ns/health-cancer/

 

I find it interesting that there appears to be no follow-up efforts by the doctors who perform either robotic or traditional surgery, nor by their professional groups, as to the extent of the permanent side effects.I elected robotic surgery on the provided estimation of 90% full recovery.(didn't happen)...I guess that last 10% can make a big difference.Urologists should take a leaf out of the Steadman Hawkins orthopaedic group in Vail, Colorado who follow up twice a year for years after performing knee surgery to track the results and adjust accordingly, and share that data with their patients BEFORE surgery.

I think the underlying message in this study was that the poorer results were more closely associated with surgeons who had not performed high volumes with the robot.

Like many things, proficiency often comes with repetition. It would be interesting to see studies showing outcomes with surgeons who had performed over 1,000 procedures with those, for example, who phad performed less than 50.