are patients sacrificed during initiation of robotics program?
OBJECTIVES: To compare the incidence of positive surgical margins obtained with robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP), during the initiation of a robotics program, with that from a similarly matched cohort of open radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) cases as performed by a single surgeon. METHODS: From December 2005 to March 2008, 63 patients underwent RRP and another 50 underwent RALP by a single urologist. The records were retrospectively reviewed, and 50 RRP patients were selected from the RRP group whose records were similar to the records of the 50 patients who had undergone RALP. We compared the incidence of positive surgical margins and the location of positive margins among the 2 groups. Additional variables evaluated included the preoperative prostate-specific antigen level, preoperative Gleason score, clinical stage, postoperative Gleason score, tumor volume, and pathologic stage. RESULTS: The positive margin rate for the RRP group was 36% compared with 22% fo
