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If you and your urologist have decided that surgical removal of the prostate is the treatment approach that you’d like to pursue, there’s different surgical techniques to accomplish the same goal, however the prostate is removed. The operation is the same on the inside of the body. The prostate gland is removed, and the bladder is attached to the urethra tube so that you pee the normal way. Before approximately the year 2004 or so, there was only one way to remove the prostate, and that was by making an incision in the abdomen. Then doctors figured out how to do it laparoscopically. And then robotic surgery came into the forefront. Currently about 90% of all prostate removals are done robotically. The term robotic surgery seems a little bit misleading. It sounds like the robot is automatically doing the surgery. It’s quite the contrary. In fact, it’s sort of like an advanced puppet. The surgeon does all the controlling of the robot, and it’s a way of making small incisions in the body, manipulating the robotic instruments inside the body to do delicate surgery. Generally speaking, there’s nothing magical about robotic surgery. The technique is not as important as the surgeon, and the surgeon’s experience. High volume experienced surgeons will achieve excellent outcomes whether the surgery is done with traditional open surgery or with robotic surgery.
