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Robotics speeds recovery for prostate cancer patients
By BOB McCLURE
| Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 |
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| Dr. Scott Klavans sits next to the console of the da Vinci Robot at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. |
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CLEARWATER – It’s something you might expect to see in a “Star Wars” sequel or perhaps a rerun of “Lost in Space.”
Recent developments have made robotic-assisted technology one of the fastest growing methods of surgery and most popular for prostate cancer patients.
For men under 60 in need of a prostatectomy, the da Vinci Robot Surgical System has become the norm in laparoscopic surgery.
The technology offers surgeons greater visualization and precision, resulting in less blood loss, less medication, shorter hospital stays and faster recovery periods.
The da Vinci system has been in use at Morton Plant Hospital’s primary campus in Clearwater since 2005 and most recently was added to the surgical suite at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor.
Doctors perform procedures, ranging from prostatectomy to open heart surgery, using small 1- to 2-centimeter incisions while sitting at a console looking into a high-definition screen, following the movements of four robotic arms on the robot.
“With the monitor providing three-dimensional internal images of the patient, the robotic arms scale, filter, translate the surgeon’s movements to make them more precise,” said Mease Countryside surgeon Lonnie Klein in a hospital release.
“It’s an extension of the surgeon, allowing us to view a magnified image of internal organs and perform intricate surgical techniques,” said Dr. Martin Richman.
A typical prostatectomy takes about 60 to 90 minutes, said Dr. Scott Klavans who has done more than 300 procedures with the Robot at Morton Plant’s Clearwater campus.
“It’s really impacted urology and the way we’ve treated our patients,” said Klavans. “It’s much better for the patient because now they can go home in less than 24 hours after the surgery.”
Klavans, who performed more than 1,000 prostatectomy procedures prior to learning the Robot, said the technology allows him to complete as many as four procedures a day. He said it is the chosen method for surgeons, as well as patients.
“In the very beginning, patients were very apprehensive,” Klavans said. “But the more research they (patients) did, they found out it’s the wave of the future. Now they ask for it.”
Klavans said about 30,000 prostatectomy procedures are done a year in the U.S. and about 800 were done with the Robot three years ago. Today that number is between 20,000 and 25,000, he said.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Intuitive Surgical Inc., launched the da Vinci Surgical System in 1999 and a year later it became the first robotic surgical system cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for general laparoscopic surgery.
It has since been approved for chest, cardiac and gynecological procedures.
More than 900 hospitals worldwide use the technology, including All-Children’s, St. Anthony’s and St. Petersburg General hospitals in Pinellas County.
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008
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