Real Time Microscopic Imaging During Robot Assisted Prostate Cancer Surgery

Prostate surgery requires meticulous dissection around nerves and associated structures such as the bladder, seminal vesicles and vas deferens. Nerve damage during prostatectomy can result in undesirable outcomes such as impotence and urinary incontinence. Robot assisted minimally invasive prostatectomy offers enhanced visualisation of the surgical field. Superior clinical outcomes in terms of length of hospital stay, blood loss, and oncologic margins compared with open surgery are reported. Confocal endomicroscopy provides high resolution subsurface cellular imaging in real time and is already in clinical use in gastroenterology and under investigation in other surgical applications. A potential role exists for confocal endomicroscopy to enhance microscopic nerve identification intra-operatively and guide surgical decision making during robot-assisted prostatectomy.