Stepping Hill Hospital’s surgical team have carried out pioneering new robotic surgery to treat a patient’s prostate condition.

This is the first time the new robotic keyhole surgery technique has been used to treat a patient with an enlarged prostate in the North West, and one of only few in the UK.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common condition in men over 50, where the prostate being enlarged and leading to bladder stones formation. This can be painful, and affect the ability to urinate. Traditionally, the very large prostate was operated on using invasive open surgery. Using the new robotic transvesical simple prostatectomy procedure, the very large prostate and bladder stones can be removed using the hospital’s hi-tech surgical robot with small incisions.

The new procedure is quicker, simpler, safer, less bloody, and results in a quicker recovery time. Using the old procedure the patients would normally spend around a week in hospital, with the operation done robotically they will typically be out in 48 hours. The recovery time at home is swifter too.

The operation was recently carried out at theatres in Stepping Hill Hospital for the first time, with patient Barry Kenyon. Retired design engineer Barry, 73 years old, lives with wife Iris in Macclesfield, and has two children and three grandchildren. He was diagnosed with BPH earlier in the year and booked in to Stepping Hill for the operation. Barry says “I was very pleased to be the first to have this new operation. I was prepared to feel unwell for about six weeks, but with this it was more like six days. They’ve done a great job – full marks to the team!”

Mr Vincent Tang, the Consultant Urological Surgeon trained in robotic surgery in the UK and Australia now working for the trust, who carried out the surgery said “The procedure is new to the North West. I regularly perform robotic radical prostate surgery for prostate cancer, but this is the first time we’ve been able to offer robotic surgery on a patient with very large BPH and bladder stones.”

 “Traditionally very large BPH is a challenge with open surgery, there are other techniques such as using laser to treat this condition. However, in very selected cases using robotic transvesical simple prostatectomy has its benefits and it has been highlighted in this case. Thanks to the fantastic theatre team and the operation was a success, I am glad to see Barry recovered quickly. Certainly this has added more options for our patients with similar condition and we hope to see other patients benefit from it soon.”