WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat Dr. Sanjay Ramakumar, UMC urology surgeon, has pioneered a new surgical method for a laparoscopic prostatectomy, or removal of the prostate gland.

Laparoscopic surgery brings new hope for prostate cancer patients

University Medical Center made history last month when Dr. Sanjay Ramakumar performed the hospital's first laparoscopic prostate removal, making UMC the only medical institution in the Southwest to perform the operation.

The procedure, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, is a minimally-invasive laser surgery that requires half the healing time of open surgery.

The process relies on only a few small incisions, usually about five millimeters, rather than a large cut in the abdomen to remove the entire prostate and then attach the urethra directly to the bladder. The laparoscope guides the surgeon through one site, while other surgeons and a voice-controlled robotic arm operate through the other incisions, according to the Kongrad Urology Web site.

The scope then sends magnified images to a monitor that can be easily viewed by all people in the operating room, allowing for more accuracy during the process.

"It places us at the top of the field of urology," said Associate Professor of Surgery Craig Comiter, UMC's chief of urology. "I give Dr. Ramakumar full credit for that."

Ramakumar is currently the only surgeon in southern Arizona certified to perform the procedure. However, the success of the LRP has enabled UMC to recruit another LRP surgeon to come on board July 1, Comiter said.

July 1 is also the target date to begin teaching the surgery to students, he said.

"It's very important that all major academic centers have a minimally-invasive surgery program," Ramakumar said. "At UMC, we wanted to make sure we offer state-of-the-art care for prostate cancer patients in a safe and effective environment."

The laparoscopic procedure is not at all experimental, but another surgical option for treating cancer, Ramakumar said.

"This is the latest surgical advance for the treatment of prostate cancer and we believe this could potentially be better than open surgery," he said.

LRP originated in Texas about 10 years ago, although the first doctor who completed it said that it was not as useful as the traditional open surgery method because of its complexity.

However, in the years since LRP was developed, three French doctors from two Paris hospitals fine-tuned the operation, and now all prostate removal in France is done laparoscopically, Ramakumar said.

"(Laparoscopic) surgery is the most effective way to treat prostate cancer. Anyone with a life expectancy of at least 10 years is a candidate for surgery," Comiter said.

Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among American males, and it is projected to claim 600 lives this year in Arizona alone, according to the American Cancer Society.