Dr. Albala on Patient Selection for Robotic Surgery in Prostate Cancer

David Albala, MD, urologist and medical director, Associated Medical Professionals, discusses patients with prostate cancer who are best suited to be treated with robotic surgery.

According to Albala, all patients who are surgical candidates for the procedure that they're going to undergo, can be done robotically. If a patient is a candidate for a prostatectomy—whether the procedure is done with a retropubic, perineal, or a robotic approach—then they can be operated on robotically.

Obese patients can be be treated with robotic surgery with the new da Vinci system, which includes longer reaches for the instruments, explains Albala. Despite challenges with some of the earlier porotypes of the robot, these procedures are now able to be done with great ease and yield beneficial results for patients. Overall, anything that can be accomplished with an open procedure, he says, can also be done robotically.