The Field of urology has witnessed a remarkable transformation with the advent of robotic surgery, before that urology was a complicated procedure. Urology surgery emerged as a modern and highly effective approach to various urological conditions. Invasive surgery is traditional surgery, which is also called open surgery.
Traditional surgery includes large cuts but urology is a minimally invasive surgery only a small cut is required. Also, there is less damage to health but many surgical instruments need to be passed through small incisions. Faster recovery and improved outcomes are seen in robotic surgery.
What is Robotic Urology Surgery?
Robotic urology is a modern-day surgery that requires less incision and insertion of the instruments through the incision. These surgeries are less painful after recovery, which is why they are considered better options than traditional surgery which requires a big incision in the body parts.
Robotic urology surgery was owes success for the da Vinci Surgical System, and it enables surgeons to perform intricate procedures. It was introduced in the early 2000s and gained popularity in less time. Urologists can perform a wide range of procedures like prostatectomies, nephrectomies, and cystectomies.
Types of robotic surgery
There are various conditions when you need to be operated on with robotic urology surgery and these conditions include most of the disease of the abdomen region. The dominant surgery that falls under the category of robot-assisted surgery is:
- Prostatectomy
- Radical and partial nephrectomy
- Pyelo/urethroplasty
- Cystectomy
- Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND)
Most of these surgery occur in the abdominal region of the body. Prostatectomy is the removal of prostrate and radical nephrectomy is the removal of parts of the kidney. Similarly, cystectomy is the removal of the bladder and RPLND is the removal of the lymph nodes.
Applications of Robotic Urology Surgery
These surgeries are different because of their location and are named according to their classification.
Prostatectomy – It is the removal of prostate cancer, and it is done in case of malignancies in males. Most of the time there are localized cancers in the prostrate region and robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) is the gold-standard treatment to treat prostate cancers.
It is easy to get treatment from doctors through RALP and minimally invasive procedures for reduced blood loss. Also, prostate cancer is the most common cancer of urological malignancies.
Nephrectomy – There are various situations when you need the removal of non-functional kidney parts or full kidneys. This also happens because of malignant tumors in the kidney, and some other conditions also.
Robotic-assisted laparoscopy allows precise removal of the kidney parts with minimal pain and incision. There is no trauma in surrounding tissues and patients can be recovered easily.
Cystectomy – bladder cancer is one of the urogenital tract cancers and can also result in cancer. For removal of bladder robotic surgery in urology can be used. Robotic mastectomy is less invasive than open traditional surgery methods. Postoperative outcomes are also easy to handle and they include reduced pain to open surgery and less time of recovery.
Pyeloplasty – The typical name of this surgery does not give an idea about body organs. Some urinary tract parts need to be cured with pyeloplasty. Most of the time it is for ureter pelvic junction obstruction operations.
It is minimally invasive like other body incisions and its most prominent benefit is it can restore normal kidney functions. With less effort and more benefits, it was accepted by both patients and doctors in less time. Traditional surgeries are not available for this region and are also less successful in comparison to robotic-assisted surgery.
Advantages of robotic surgery
There are many benefits of robotic-assisted surgery, let’s confront them for our understanding:
- Reduced damage, less pain, less recovery period, and less loss of blood from the body.
- A minimally invasive and small incision is required and it reduces the chances of infection in the body of the patient.
- With the help of instrument insertion, a surgeon can visualize tumor or malignant tissue easily. It helps them to identify and manipulate the tissue of that part.
- There is no damage to surrounding tissue and also minimizes blood loss, there is no need for blood transfusion.
- As there is less time required in surgical processes and also less recovery period enables patients to have shorter hospital stays.
- When a patient thinks about the traditional surgery procedure they tend to be confused because of the scary explanation of traditional procedures. However, in the case of robotic surveys in urology, the patient is not affected that much mentally.
Disadvantages of Robotic surgery
Besides the advantages of robotic surgery, there are many cases when we need to consider the disadvantages. Also, you need to look for a qualified doctor for robotic-assisted surgeries. Some of the common disadvantages of robotic surgeries are given here:
- They are expensive and sometimes hospital crosses unrealistic expectations in the case of robotics surgery treatment.
- They require qualified doctors and lots of training mostly small practice is not enough for robotic surgery.
- Sometimes emergency can cause the transfer to traditional surgery by leaving laparoscopy.
- The duration of the surgery is more them the traditional surgery procedures.
- When the emergency critical case is analyzed doctors have to remove the instrument for open surgery and it is risky.
- Robotic surgery can not be managed easily by the staff of the hospital and it is not for every patient.
Conclusion
Robotic urology surgery represents a modern method of treating tumors and malignancies. However, it is allowed with many limitations in the case of staff and practice doctors. There are many advantages like less recovery period and small incisions but they are not enough to compare with the practice of doctors.
There are rate practitioners in India who are confident about their practice. One of them is Dr. Saket Narnoli in Dhanbad, Jharkhand you can contact him for more guidance.