Robotic prostate removal tied to surgical changes, costs

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Robotic prostate removal tied to surgical changes, costs

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) â€" The introduction of robotic surgery for prostate cancer may have led to changes in the number of surgeons performing prostate removals and in the overall cost, according to a new study. With the technology being used more widely, fewer doctors are performing the procedure and the overall cost of prostate removal has gone up, researchers found. While studies examining the benefits and potential harms of robotic surgery have produced mixed results, the researchers write in BJU International that there is little information on how the innovation influenced prostate removal in the U.S. "We knew by anecdotal reports as well as the scientific literature that it had become relatively widespread but we didn’t know how that had been done,” said Dr. Steven Chang, the study’s lead author from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

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