Our European friends at the ORSI Academy and OLV Hospital in Aalst, Belgium have finished their initial study of five robot assisted radical prostatectomy cases done using the newly-approved Medtronic HUGO RAS robotic surgical system. Online medical news service 'urotoday.com' has published their report.
Here is an excerpt from their Abstract: "All procedures were completed, with no need for conversion or for placement of additional ports. No intraoperative complication or technical failure of the system was recorded. The median operative time was 170 min (interquartile range [IQR]: 140-180) and the median console time was 120 min (IQR: 110-150). Median length of stay was 3 d (IQR: 2-4). System start-up and docking of the robotic arms were straightforward and rapid processes for a properly trained surgical team. Awaiting future investigations in larger series, this study proves the safety and feasibility of RARP with the Hugo RAS system and provides relevant data that may be of help to early adopters of this surgical platform."
In this excellent article, the authors describe some minor glitches- and fixe. They also provideexperience-based suggestions for surgical teams on how they have learned to efficiently set up this new system.
