Royal Surrey performs 100th day case prostatectomy | News

The hundredth cancer patient has gone home the same day that he had his prostate surgically removed as part of a drive to aid recovery.

The initiative has helped save the Trust more than £17,000 by avoiding unnecessary hospital stays and freeing up vital beds for other patients.

Charlie O’Shea, aged 69, was the lucky hundredth patient who was well enough to go home just hours after surgeons used pioneering robotic technology to perform the procedure, which is known as a radical prostatectomy.

Previously, patients would have spent a night in hospital after undergoing the procedure robotically, which was down from the week-long stay they would have faced if traditional surgical methods had been used.

Wissam Abou Chedid, the Consultant Surgeon who performed the hundredth procedure, said: “Using the robots means that patients are days ahead in their recovery compared to people who have had full open surgery because they do not have the trauma of a large incision in their abdomen and their organs moved about.

“The evidence clearly speaks for itself and patients who have gone home the same day as their surgery are reporting feeling better quicker because they are recovering in their own surroundings and not spending a night with us unnecessarily.”

Patients have to meet a number of criteria to be suitable to go home the same day as their surgery, they are also assessed after surgery by the urology team to ensure they are ready to go home and an in-patient bed is always available.

Mr O’Shea was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year after a chance encounter in his GP practice saw him offered a PSA blood test.

He said: “It was quite by chance that I was offered the test and looking back it was incredibly lucky as I had no symptoms.

“I was actually accompanying my wife for an appointment when it was offered to me, so I feel very grateful that the cancer was picked up.

“Going home the same day was a positive as it meant that I could be in my own surroundings and in my own bed.”

Royal Surrey is one of the only single site NHS Trusts in the UK to have four cutting edge robots, with three dedicated to performing surgery and one to help with training.

The cutting edge machines allow surgeons to use a control console to manoeuvre the robots’ arms, whilst using a minimally invasive approach, also known as keyhole surgery.

As a result, patients benefit from a shorter hospital stay, quicker recovery, reduced blood loss and discomfort post-surgery and much more.

Before the introduction of the robots, patients would have had to undergo full open surgery to have their prostate removed.

(Pictured above, CharlieO'Shea, patient; Wissam Abou Chedid, Consultant Surgeon; and Maria Innes, Prostate Clinical Nurse Specialist.)