Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy

The Lahey Clinic Institute of Urology is equipped with a daVinci ® Surgical System, a computerized robotic platform that enhances the performance of laparoscopic prostatectomy.

As with traditional laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon operates through tiny incisions in the patient’s abdomen. The daVinci System serves as extensions of the surgeon’s hands, and is designed to filter and translate the surgeon’s hand movements into precise movements of instruments within the surgical site.

Surgical performance is enhanced by the elimination of some of the physical challenges posed by traditional laparoscopic surgery. The daVinci System can improve the surgeon’s visualization of delicate tissues and nerves by providing him or her with a magnified, 3D view of the surgical site. It also increases the surgeon's dexterity by allowing for 360-degree rotation of surgical tools.

The daVinci System is the only surgical robotic system approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in performing radical prostatectomy, as well as a range of other procedures.

Click here to watch a short video about robot-assisted prostatectomy and the daVinci Robotic Surgical System.

Meet the Robotic Surgical Team

Urologic surgeons at Lahey Clinic who are performing robot-assisted laparoscopy include John Libertino, MD, Andrea Sorcini, MD, and Ingolf Tuerk, MD.

John A. Libertino, MD

John A. Libertino, MD, as director, has led the Lahey Clinic Institute of Urology in establishing an international reputation for excellence in the areas of patient care, research and education. In addition to his roles as surgeon and teacher, Dr. Libertino has served as chair of the Urology Institute since 1991.

Patients with some of the most complex urologic conditions have benefited from surgical techniques pioneered by Dr. Libertino. Most notable are methods he has developed for removing complicated urologic tumors. Dr. Libertino has performed more than 200 successful operations to remove kidney tumors that have grown into the vena cava or heart. In addition, he and Leonard Zinman, MD, were the first ever to perform revascularization of totally occluded renal arteries with return of kidney function.

Dr. Libertino earned his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine (1965). He later completed a residency in urology at Yale New Haven Medical Center (1970); a cardiovascular research fellowship at Georgetown University School of Medicine (1964); and a Harvey Cushing Fellowship in Surgery at Yale University School of Medicine (1969).

From 1995 to 1999, Dr. Libertino served as chief executive officer of Lahey Clinic. His other administrative roles have included chair of the division of surgery and chair of the board of governors. He presently serves as vice-chair of the board of trustees.

Dr. Libertino actively participated in visiting professorships at hospitals, medical schools and universities worldwide. He is also active on the editorial boards of urologic journals including the American Journal of Urology Review and British Journal of Urology and has himself authored hundreds of journal articles and a number of textbooks and book chapters. Dr. Libertino currently serves as a Professor of Urology at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Andrea Sorcini, MD

Andrea Sorcini, MD, is a specialist in the fields of minimally invasive surgery and urologic oncology. He joined the Urology Institute in 2000, after completing his urology residency and transplant fellowship at Lahey Clinic. Today, he is actively involved in the Kidney Transplant Program, Prostate Center and Center for Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery.

Dr. Sorcini has performed many laparoscopic and open kidney operations and transplants. Under his direction, the volume of kidney transplants at Lahey Clinic nearly quadrupled in the early 2000s. Today he focuses primarily on urologic oncology and laparoscopic removal of cancers of the bladder, prostate, kidney and adrenal gland.

Dr. Sorcini is a graduate of the University of Rome, La Sapienza School of Medicine in Italy, where he completed a residency in general surgery in 1993. He has published many scholarly articles in the field of urologic oncology, along with videos on clinical and technical aspects of urology that have won several awards at international conferences.

Ingolf Tuerk, MD, PhD

Laparoscopic urologic surgeon Ingolf Tuerk, MD, PhD, serves as director of the Lahey Clinic Center for Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery.

Tuerk is world-renowned for pioneering several laparoscopic techniques including radical and partial nephrectomy, radical prostatectomy, right side donor nephrectomy, and radical cystectomy with continent urinary diversion. The latter—which is a technique for removing bladder cancer laparoscopically and creating a “neobladder” from the patient’s own tissues—was among the procedures perfected by Tuerk during his tenure at Charite Hospital of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

Tuerk received his medical degree from the medical school at Humboldt University in Berlin in 1989, after which he trained at the city’s Charite Hospital. Under his guidance as chief of minimally invasive urology, Charite Hospital established one of the world’s leading laparoscopic programs in urology.

Since joining the Urology Institute in 2002, Dr. Tuerk has focused on utilizing laparoscopy in the treatment of urologic cancers, particularly cancers of the kidney, testis, prostate and bladder. He has performed more than 1,000 laparoscopic radical prostatectomies over the past decade.