Bryn Mawr Hospital Surgeon Combines Advanced Minimally Invasive Procedure And Robotic Technology to Treat Prostate Cancer

BRYN MAWR, Pa. -- Bryn Mawr Hospital surgeon David McGinnis, MD, is changing the way prostate cancer is being treated, using a robot called "AESOP." McGinnis is among the first urologists in the United States to use robotic technology to enhance his minimally invasive surgical techniques.

McGinnis has been performing the robotically assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy, or LRP, at Bryn Mawr Hospital since last year. He studied LRP at the Institute Mutualiste Montsouris in Paris, France with Drs. Guy Vallancien and Bertrand Guillonneau. He is among the first American urologists to implement the procedure in this country, and has performed more than 40 procedures to date. The new procedure dramatically reduces recovery time for patients, and Bryn Mawr is one of only about 20 medical centers in the country to offer the new surgery.

Manufactured by Computer Motion, Inc., a leader in medical robotics, the AESOP robotic technology is the first Food and Drug Administration-approved surgical robot.

According to McGinnis, a current standard treatment for prostate cancer is radical prostatectomy, in which an eight-inch incision is made in the patient's lower abdomen to remove the prostate. "The clear advantages of performing this procedure laparoscopically are decreased pain, quicker recovery and less bleeding," he explained. "The future of surgery is to become less invasive and limit the side-effects of treatment, and this is a big step in that direction."

To perform the laparoscopic procedure, an endoscope is inserted into the patient's abdomen to allow the surgeon to view the prostate on a video monitor during the surgery.

A unique aspect of the procedure is that McGinnis uses robotic technology to assist him in positioning the endoscope to view the prostate. The robotic arm responds to the surgeon's simple voice commands.

"The robotic arm gives surgeons a better view of the operating site and allows the assistant surgeon to use both hands to help the surgeon," explains McGinnis. "We have found that patients are back to normal activities in two weeks and feeling much better than those who have had open surgery."

McGinnis said patients who would not be good candidates for the minimally invasive procedure are those with prior prostate cancer treatment, including hormonal therapy and radiation therapy, and obese patients.

After lung cancer, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. On an annual basis approximately 45,000 surgical procedures are performed to remove the cancerous prostate.

McGinnis, a resident of Gladwyne, Penn., is a graduate of Harvard College (1982) and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio (1987). He served an internship and residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and is a faculty member at Jefferson Medical College. He joined the Department of Urology at Bryn Mawr Hospital last summer.

Source: PRNewswire

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