Robotic surgery: review of prostate and bladder cancer

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery has become to replace many of the open procedures in urology because of the obvious benefits in perioperative morbidity. However, because of the technical challenges and steep learning curve, the adoption of laparoscopy has been limited to only highly skilled laparoscopic surgeons. The introduction of the da Vinci surgical system (Intuitive Surgical Inc, Sunnyvale, Calif) has offered significant technical advantages over laparoscopic surgery. Because of the wide acceptance of robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy over the past decade, it has paved the way for urologists to tackle other complex operations, such as a radical cystectomy to decrease the morbidity of the operation. The goal of this article was to review the history and discuss the application and current status of the robot in both prostate and bladder cancer management. We present our technique of performing a robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy and the application of the robust prostate experience to robotic cystectomy.