My doctor tells me that the surgeon loses tactile sensation with robotic surgery. How does this affect the outcomes of surgery?
Tactile sensation, or perception through touch, is an important part of open radical prostatectomy surgery. The surgeon usually uses this sense in portions of the operation where he or she is not able to see clearly. With the da Vinci robot, true tactile sensation is lost. However, the ability to move the robotic camera to “difficult” locations provides the surgeon with an advantage, and the ability to see much more clearly compensates for the loss of tactile sensation. Further, we have found that with experience, a pseudo tactile sensation has been developed by our surgeons. These two factors appear to more than compensate for the lack of real tactile sensation. This is why the results for robotic surgery are superior.
