A team from New York City-based NYU Langone Health is among the first to treat a rare radiation treatment complication with a new robotic procedure.
The procedure, described as a microsurgery, was performed on a prostate cancer survivor who was living with severe pain, incontinence and the inability to walk following complications from his cancer treatment, according to a Dec. 5 news release from NYU Langone.
Lee Zhao, MD, the director of male reconstructive surgery at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine's department of urology and a member of NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, completed the successful 17-hour procedure earlier this year. Dr. Zhao robotically reconnected the patient's bladder and urethra using part of the patient's small intestine.
The patient experienced "immediate relief" from the pain he had been experiencing. He will undergo a final procedure next year to restore continence, the release said.