The Section of Surgical Sciences

Vanderbilt University's extensive experience and expertise with robotic surgery will be showcased in April at the World Robotic Symposium 2010 in Orlando, Florida.

Joseph A. Smith, Jr., M.D. will perform a robotic radical prostatectomy at Vanderbilt which will be webcast live to the conference on April 14 and be fed simultaneously to audiences in Europe and Asia. Similar live surgical transmissions from Vanderbilt have been broadcast to several meetings, including the largest urologic surgery meeting in the world, the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.

Vanderbilt's Department of Urologic Surgery first introduced robotic assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy in 2002. Since then, only a few hospitals in the world have a surgical experience equal to Vanderbilt’s in robotic surgery. Smith, professor and chairman of the Department of Urologic Surgery, has performed over 3000 of the procedures himself and authored a textbook on the subject. He is former President of the American Board of Urology and the Society of Urologic Oncology.

Radical prostatectomy has become the preferred treatment for men with clinically localized carcinoma of the prostate, and Vanderbilt has been a pioneer in developing a programmatic approach to decrease surgical morbidity. Long considered a leader in surgical treatment of urologic cancers, Vanderbilt now has a number of qualified and experienced surgeons who perform robotic prostatectomy, a less invasive surgical approach. Most patients are discharged after only one night in the hospital.