Study discounts reported advantages of robotic surgery for prostate cancer

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A new study shows that robotic surgery for prostate cancer is not as effective as the old-fashioned invasive approach.

But Milwaukee surgeon Pedro Banda says the study might be flawed, because it does not consider the ages of the patients and the sizes of their prostates. Robotic surgery has become popular in recent years, as men were led to believe it would avoid a loss of bladder control, and give them a better chance of keeping their sexual functions.

But according to a report by the Journal of the American Medical Association, men 65 and older were 30 percent more likely to be incontinent, and 40 percent more likely to have erectile dysfunction within a year and a half after a robotic surgery.

The study also said it takes up to 250 procedures before a surgeon can be fully proficient with the robotic equipment.

Banda, a surgeon at Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, says doctors are getting more proficient with the units.

Matthew Johnson of Milwaukee St. Luke’s says the numbers would be better for robotic surgeries, had the study included doctors with at least 150 operations under their belts.

St. Luke’s was the first in Wisconsin to offer the robotic surgeries in 2003.

Tags: prostate cancer, wisconsin, health, surgery