Pforzheim. My hands disappear into the lower part of a control console, which rather resembles a clinical vision test device. Two fingers from each hand immerse into loops, while I press my forehead against a cushion and stare at two small monitors. With each movement of the finger pairs, I operate two forceps. With them, I rotate and pull on a part of a blue rubber glove. However, the part lies two meters away from me on an operating table in the operating room of the "Goldstadt Privatklinik" in Pforzheim. And the forceps are attached to the ends of robotic arms.

What I, as a true person with poor motor skills, considered delicate work, is promptly corrected by the Medical Director of the specialized urological clinic, Prof. Dr. med. Sven Lahme. Unfortunately, my efforts are not suitable for surgery.

In real operations, he sits in front of flicker-free, three-dimensional monitor images during robot-assisted da Vinci surgeries. These images show, for example, a patient's prostate magnified up to ten times. And then, with the utmost care and precision, he navigates through the body of a patient lying nearby, avoiding the finest blood vessels or nerves - solely through finger movements on the invisible joysticks in the control console.

With the forceps and cutting devices on the robotic arms, the prostate cancer is completely removed without damaging much surrounding tissue. After all, in such an operation, the erectile nerves should be preserved. Only the experienced surgeon can recognize and perform this. The entire minimally invasive operation appears surprisingly low in blood.

Expert Panel Live from the Operating Room

What I, as a medical layman, was allowed to test on a rubber glove, patients, interested parties, and experts can experience live from the operating room of the private clinic on Ispringer Straße on February 8 via internet video conference - using a model. The topic of the "Urological Forum" of the "Goldstadt Privatklinik" is "Prostate Cancer: Diagnosis and Treatment with Robot-Assisted da Vinci Surgery". Participants in the video conference can ask live questions to the moderator during expert presentations and demonstrations of examination and treatment options.

Presented will be Privatdozent Dr. Jörn H. Witt, a pioneer of this treatment technique with 20,000 robot-assisted surgeries under his belt, who now joins the team of the "Goldstadt Privatklinik".

As chief physician at the St. Trudpert Hospital in Pforzheim, Lahme established robotic surgery there in 2008 together with Witt. At that time, Pforzheim was only the seventh location of a da Vinci robot in Germany.

INFORMATION

Participation in the "Urological Forum" on February 8, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., on the topic "Prostate Cancer - Diagnosis and Treatment with Robot-Assisted da Vinci Surgery" is free of charge. All information for the video conference via the internet can be found at goldstadt-privatklinik.de/forum

Author: Thomas Kurtz