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New Gold Standard of Prostate Cancer Treatments: da Vinci Prostatectomy

Of the prostate cancer treatments available this one may be best of the prostate cancer treatments available to you when it comes to survival and complication rates.

It's true. Da Vinci Prostatectomy is considered to be a dramatic improvement of conventional laparoscopy. Which is why an estimated 30,000 patients will undergo this prostate disease treatment in 2006.

Robot-assisted surgery for treating prostate cancer was cleared by the FDA in 2005. And no wonder. Here's some of the benefits of what's considered to be a minimally invasive surgical technique:

Less post-op pain

Shorter hospital stays

Quickest way to get back on your feet

Reduced blood loss coming in part from greater precision offered by the robot.

Lower risk of side affects.

All you're typically left with after this particular prostate cancer therapy is six small scars.

But you don't want just any robot jockey operating on you. Here are three questions to ask any prospective surgeon.

When it comes to surgery, experience counts. Robotic surgery is no different. There are many variables to master. So find out how many times the surgeon has done this procedure. It's felt it takes at least 30 instances for the surgeon to become comfortable. And a couple of hundred to master the finesse required to save nerves.

Overall how many times has the procedure been done at the hospital?

Finally see if you can't talk with previous patients to get a feel for their experience.

Don't forget to check with your insurance. Some carriers still consider this to be an experimental procedure. So it pays to know what your health insurance will cover when it comes to prostate cancer treatment.