Management of pelvic organ prolapse in the elderly - is there a role for robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexy?

Abdominal sacrocolpopexy is considered the gold standard treatment for symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Since its introduction, robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexy has emerged as a popular minimally invasive alternative to open repair. Epidemiologic data suggest that the number of women seeking surgical treatment for POP will increase to ~50% by 2050, and many of these women will be elderly.

Bilateral spermatocytic seminoma: a case report.

Spermatocytic seminoma (SS) is a rare entity, accounting for 2%-12% of all seminomas; amongst those, fewer than 10% are bilateral. These may occur synchronously or metachranously. We report here a case of bilateral SS in a 63-year-old patient, who initially presented with bilateral testicular masses.

The significance of functional renal obstruction in predicting pathologic stage of upper tract urothelial carcinoma.

Background And Purpose: Assessing the severity of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) has been difficult because of inadequate biopsy specimens. Additional predictive parameters of disease stage would be useful when deciding a treatment plan; it has been suggested that preoperative hydronephrosis can be a surrogate. We examined the relationship between preoperative ipsilateral renal obstruction identified by imaging with final pathologic stage after nephroureterectomy (NU) for UTUC.

Robotic-assistance does not enhance standard laparoscopic technique for right-sided donor nephrectomy.

Objective: To examine donor and recipient outcomes after right-sided robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (RALDN) compared with standard laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) and to determine whether robotic-assistance enhances LDN.

Materials & Methods: From December 2005 to January 2011, 25 patients underwent right-sided LDN or RALDN. An IRB-approved retrospective review was performed of both donor and recipient medical charts.

Face, content, and construct validation of the da Vinci Skills Simulator.

Objective: To report on assessments of face, content, and construct validity for the commercially available da Vinci Skills Simulator (dVSS).

Methods: A total of 38 subjects participated in this prospective study. Participants were classified as novice (0 robotic cases performed), intermediate (1-74 robotic cases), or expert (≥ 75 robotic cases).