Urologic Cancer Treatment
Precise Surgery for Urologic Cancers
The primary treatment for urologic cancers is surgery. Today, leading urologic surgeons — including those at Penn Highlands Healthcare — perform these surgeries using robotic surgical systems. At Penn Highlands, our urologic surgeons use the da Vinci Xi Surgical System to ensure pinpoint accuracy and offer numerous benefits to our patients.
Robotic-Assisted Urologic Surgery
Penn Highlands specially trained urology surgeons have years of experience and have performed hundreds of surgeries each using the da Vinci robotic surgical system. They use the robotic system to perform many types of minimally invasive urologic surgeries including surgery to treat prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer. They also use the robotic system to perform reconstructive surgery.
Urology Surgeons Obtain Pinpoint Accuracy
Penn Highlands urologic surgeons use robotic-assisted surgery for one primary reason: to achieve accuracy that cannot be achieved through normal minimally invasive surgery or even traditional surgery where large incisions are made for a wider field of vision.
This enhanced accuracy is a result of several features of the robotic system:
- Magnified 3-D vision: Rather than depending on their own eyesight, surgeons view the surgical field through the robot’s camera which magnifies and enhances the images. This allows the surgeons to see the tiniest structures or particles — an especially important feature when removing cancerous tumors from organs.
- 360-degree wristed instrumentation: Unlike normal endoscopic tools that can only be turned as far as the surgeon’s wrist rotates, the da Vinci instruments can be turned in a full circle by the surgeon who controls them at a console, similar to how virtual reality video games are played.
- Anti-tremor software: Even the steadiest surgeon can experience minor tremors, but the da Vinci robot software removes those tremors from extending into the instrumentation being used by the surgeon.
The da Vinci features not only help surgeons achieve great accuracy; they also help more people become eligible for minimally invasive surgery. Historically, for instance, some types of minimally invasive surgery were difficult to perform on larger patients but the da Vinci’s magnified 3D vision features make robotic surgery more feasible.
Urology
Penn Highlands Urology - DuBoisA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Urology
Penn Highlands Urology - DuBoisA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Urology
Penn Highlands Urology - ClearfieldA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Penn Highlands Urology - DuBoisA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Urology
Penn Highlands Urology - ClearfieldA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Penn Highlands Urology - DuBoisA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Urology
Penn Highlands Urology - DuBoisA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Penn Highlands Urology - RidgwayA Service of Penn Highlands DuBois
Patients with Urological Cancers Benefit from Robotic Surgery
The near-term benefits of robotic-assisted surgery for patients are significant when performed by experienced surgeons. The robotic surgical system allows surgeons to perform procedures much faster through smaller incisions than traditional open surgery and even most minimally invasive procedures. Although robotic-assisted surgery has similar outcomes in the long term to other types of surgery, the short-term benefits felt by patients are immense and valuable. Those benefits include:
- Less blood loss
- Reduced post-surgical pain
- Shorter hospital stays
- Faster recovery, allowing patients to return to normal activities and work faster
- Smaller scars and less scar tissue
Specialized Robotic-Assisted Surgeries for Urologic Cancers
Penn Highlands urologic oncologists perform robotic-assisted surgery to perform the following procedures:
- Robotic radical prostatectomy: This procedure to remove the prostate is used to treat prostate cancer (the term radical prostatectomy refers to removal of the entire prostate). This surgery is typically done in men in good health under the age of 72 whose cancer is only in the prostate and nearby lymph nodes. Learn more.
- Robotic partial and radical nephrectomy: This procedure removes part or all of the kidney to treat cancer. If the tumor is less than about 4 cm in size, surgeons may try a robotic partial nephrectomy to only remove the tumor and keep the rest of the kidney intact. If the tumor is larger, the entire kidney is removed. Learn More.
- Robotic radical cystectomy with intracorporal diversion: If bladder cancer has invaded a large part of the bladder, a surgeon will use this procedure to remove the bladder. After removing the bladder, the surgeon then creates a tube out of a piece of the patient’s small intestine. The surgeon then connects the ureters that were previously connected to the bladder to the tube and runs the tube through a small hole in the abdomen to drain urine into a pouch worn outside the body but under the clothes. Penn Highlands urologic surgeons were the first in western Pennsylvania to perform this sophisticated procedure, called a robotic cystectomy with intracorporal diversion. Learn More.
- Robotic reconstruction of the urinary tract: Penn Highlands urology surgeons perform robotic pyeloplasty and ureteric re-implantation to treat narrowing or blockage of parts of the urinary tract.
