Duke Medical Minutes are produced by local sports radio affiliates and allow Duke specialists to give a brief snapshot into health offerings at Duke.

In this episode, Michael Ferrandino, MD, discusses minimally invasive robotic surgery at Duke.

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Podcast Transcript

Announcer: Today we’re talking with Dr. Michael Ferrandino, assistant professor of urologic surgery, specializing in minimally invasive robotic surgery at Duke.

And we’re talking about kidney and prostate. On the subject of minimally invasive surgery, what would be something that needs to be surgically removed?

Ferrandino: Things like prostate cancer, when it’s been decided to have surgery for prostate cancer, or kidney cancers, are typically removed via either open or minimally invasive techniques. There’s been a rapid growth recently, however, of robotic surgery for prostates and kidney cancer. Because of the decreased convalescence -- shorter hospitalization, shorter recovery time, decreased pain, and a more rapid return to work. We’re currently able to perform very complex surgeries for the kidney in particular, where we remove just portions of the kidney and are able to reconstruct it by use of robotic techniques.