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For patients who have kidney cancer, there are multiple treatment options to include observation, surgery and ablative techniques. Historically an entire kidney needed to be removed when a suspected tumor was present, often through a large incision. With technological advances, we are often now able to just remove the affected portion of the kidney, called a partial nephretomy.
With the advent of the da Vinci robot, we are now able to perform the parital nephrectomy with significatnly less morbidity to our patients. The surgery is still performed under general anesthesia but typically requires less than two hours to complete. Many patients are discharged from the hospital the next day following surgery. Patients generally have negligible blood loss and relatively rapid recovery to normal activity. Several large sample research studies have shown equal efficacy, in terms of cancer cure, comparing complete removal of the entire kidney to the less invasive excision of the localized cancerous tumor.
© 2011 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. | da Vinci® Surgery
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