Minimally invasive prostate cancer surgery leaving men ‘impotent’

Scientists at the University of Sydney, Australia, have has sparked renewed debate over robotically assisted surgery, and over how much surgeons should be obliged to tell patients about their success rates.

Their recent study tergeting long-term results of ‘minimally invasive’ prostate surgery has raised doubts regarding the efficacy of robotic prostate cancer surgery. The main claiming is that instead of being a saviour, the procedure is leaving men with more incontinence and impotence than traditional techniques.

The stdy concluded that men are in an enormously vulnerable position. They are not in a position at all to adequately evaluate the claims put to them by a doctor. The issues of urinary incontinence and sexual impotence are really very important for a lot of men, especially now men as young as 40 are being screened for prostate cancer.

However, the pioneers of robotic surgery in Australia have defended the procedure, saying the research was flawed as the new study did not take into account surgeons’ levels of experience.

The study has been published in the Journal of the Amercian Medical Association.