Robot assisted laparoscopic inguinal surgery

Just want to let everyone know that I had robotic hernia surgery today and it went well. The surgeon was prepared to switch to open surgery if the scarring from my RALP and ART made it too difficult. He said it just takes longer than with unaffected patients and he rarely has had to go with open surgery alternative with the post treatment PCa patients he has worked on. He also checked my left side for an inguinal hernia while he was in there and cleared that concern of mine in the process.

Surgery was at 11:00am, done at 12:30, home at 2:30pm at an out patient surgery center across the street from the hospital. Feel pretty good @ 7pm and no pain meds so far. The whole process is like a mini-RALP operation but much less traumatic and faster. My brother has had a few open hernia repairs and was trying to scare the heck out of me yesterday with his pain and discomfort stories which I have not experienced so far. I am a fan so far.

I post this because there is a general opinion that robotic hernia surgery can’t be done on PCa patients and similar statements are on various surgeon’s websites. My surgeon thinks some of that is that many surgeons are older and have just not learned the robotic process and/or have access to the machines. He started with open surgeries, then laparoscopic surgeries, then robot assisted surgeries in his career. He has access to two machines at the hospital and one at the surgery center as part of a small group of surgeons in St. Paul MN. He said it is matter of keeping up with technology and using what makes most sense to him and provides the best results which is robotic for many surgeries.

Summary: Robot assisted hernia surgery can be done on RALP/ART patients with good results, just takes longer with an experienced surgeon and the potential is always there to switch to open surgery if there is too much damage and scarring in the local area which seems to be rare for an experienced surgeon with robotic expertise.

sounds like it all went so well!!...bet your glad thats over....chill now for awhile and enjoy the season!!!....Peace

Mumbo, glad things went so well and thanks for sharing this valuable info with the group.

Jim

Mambo wishing you an easy and uneventful recovery

Thanks for the well wishes. Still doing well the next day on just Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

Some additional comments from my surgeon's report regarding complexities after prior PCa treatment:

...Omental adhesions from previous surgery. Adhesions in the preperitoneal space around the inguinal hernia from a previous robotic-assisted prostatectomy. Due to these factors this was a technically difficult operation requiring 175% of the average time....

Omental adhesion seems to be between the organs and peritoneal lining which is normally separated by a fatty layer. The surgeon has to clear these adhesions when encountered to get to the repair site internally.

I am pretty sure that RALP is really an invasive procedure that disturbs many parts of the abdomen and the formation of adhesions is probably much more common than urologists seem to tell anyone about. This risk has always been clear with open surgery but minimized with RALP. Whether they cause issues or not for most people is unknown but it may explain some of the aches and pains that are noticed months or years later as well as associated items like my hernia.

Platoman - Mamba, I like it. I think Kobe would mind though, RIP.

I had robot inguinal surgery about two years ago. Have done very well.

The biggest advantage I determined versus the conventional open or laproscopic was that both sides could be checked and repaired within the one surgery. My left side was the confirmed problem, but many men have bilateral hernias. So in the one surgery my left side was corrected and my right side was checked and determined to be fine. With the other options there would have been two separate procedures, albeit under one anesthesia.

Thanks for posting this! My husband currently has an inguinal hernia that he is ignoring 🙄... I’m sure the hernia belt will get old one of these days and he will get the surgery.

My main concern is if he ends up needing SRT in the next few years, will they do it with an existing hernia or a recent repair?