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Worried Guy said:
And if you decided on surgery...Here is the link comparing Robotic vs open surgery results.
Published in JAMA 2009;302(14):1557-1564.
Medicare linked data from 2003 through 2007. ~ 8900 men with prostate cancer who underwent MIRP (n = 1938) vs RRP (n = 6899). MIRP Minimally Invasive = Robotic RRP = open Retropubic
Robotic had fewer complications, fewer hospital days but higher rates of incontinence and ED.
Jeff |
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RickyD said...
I just found this statement by Dr. Joseph Smith at Vanderbilt. This is the Dr. J Smith that Dr. Jiminez referred.
"I almost exclusively do robotic prostatectomy now because I think that, despite this manuscript, there is clear evidence that it is comparable, in terms of continence, potency and tumor control,” said Dr. Joseph Smith, the chairman of urologic surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
This is from the following article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/health/research/14prostate.html
After reading the above posts, I emailed Dr. Thomas Ahlering, head of Urology at the University of California, Irvine (where the machine was developed), and who performed the Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy on my husband. I asked his opinion of the study. He gave me permission to quote his reply:
"As far as the article in NY times which was actually published in JAMA – it did not deserve to be published. Too many protocol abnormalities and violations. Simply put, it is just not believable that a procedure can meet all of the early critical landmarks to prove superiority and then at 18 months flip-flop. There is no question that when the study is done correctly there is a huge advantage to robotics assuming a well trained and dedicated surgeon"
Becky