Department of Urologic Surgery

Robotic prostatectomy may be one of the most important technical advances to occur in the treatment of prostate cancer.  Vanderbilt has a long history of innovations in the surgical treatment of prostate cancer and one of the most experienced surgical teams in the world.  We have an experience with over 5,000 prostatectomies and will perform over 900 of these procedures in 2009.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy was introduced into our practice over seven years ago.  To date, we have performed over 3000 robotic prostatectomies, an experience matched by fewer than a handful of hospitals worldwide.  Vanderbilt Medical Center has plans for four da Vinci robots in 2009, including the most recently introducted Si model.  Our experience with both the open and robotic approach has allowed us to incorporate the advantages of each procedure in an effort to achieve the best patient results.  We continuously review our results to allow an objective and unbiased presentation of information to our patients and to permit ongoing improvements in surgical technique and patient outcomes.