Dr. Joel Rosenfeld performs first partial nephrectomy at Cartersville Medical Center using robotic surgery technology

Media release: Building on a series of new service and procedure offerings at Cartersville Medical Center, Dr. Joel Rosenfeld, urologist with Georgia Urology, recently performed the first partial nephrectomy at Cartersville Medical Center using da Vinci Robotic Surgery technology.

Partial nephrectomy removes only the diseased part of the kidney while sparing the healthy, functioning kidney tissue.  Sparing kidney tissue is important because studies show that patients who have their entire kidney removed are more likely to suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD) after surgery than patients who received a kidney-sparing partial nephrectomy.

According to the American Urological Association complete removal of the kidney is no longer the recommended therapy for tumors of acceptable size and location. Removing the mass and a margin of normal renal tissue has been shown to give excellent control of renal cancers, especially smaller lesions frequently found incidentally on x-rays.

The da Vinci Robotic Surgical System uses state-of-the-art technology to help the surgeon provide treatment which is the standard of care , while avoiding the morbidity of a large flank incision.  Robotic Partial Nephrectomy offers several potential benefits to patients facing kidney surgery, including:

• Excellent clinical outcomes and cancer control
• Short hospital stay
• Low blood loss
• Precise tumor removal and kidney reconstruction
• Excellent chance of preserving the kidney, in certain operations

"By performing partial nephrectomies laparoscopically, we can avoid a flank incision which carries both short and long term morbidity," says Dr. Rosenfeld.  "The robotic assisted procedure allows for safer and more precise identification of the blood vessels supplying the kidney, better visualization during removal of masses, and faster reconstruction of the kidney minimizing the time the kidney is deprived of blood flow.  Most patients are ambulatory and can be discharged the day after surgery."

In addition to performing partial nephrectomies, Dr. Rosenfeld also routinely performs robotic prostatectomies and other urological procedures at Cartersville Medical Center.