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Why Dr. David Samadi Thinks Robotic Surgery is the Future of Medicine

David B Samadi, MD, is a celebrated urologist who has performed prostate surgery around the world. He currently practices at Lennox Hill Hospital New York. He is their chairman of urology and also the chief of robotic surgery. He is board certified and his medical training involved both laparoscopic surgery and open traditional. During his professional career he also developed an improved version of prostate surgery called Samadi Modified Advanced Robotic Technique, otherwise known as SMART. This is a minimally invasive surgery that helps men preserve sexual function after prostate surgery and otherwise recover faster.

So far Dr. David Samadi has successfully performed more than 7,000 robotic prostate surgeries. Over 80% of his patients regain sexual function after their prostate surgery and almost 90% are diagnosed as cancer free. He says that he has used the same team to do these surgeries for more than a decade. He says that he started putting this team together in 2002 when he practiced at Columbia Presbyterian as the director of laparoscopic surgery. This team has helped him become recognized as internationally in his field and being named as one of the top 3 urologists who practice in New York City.

He is a member of both the American Medical Association and the American Urologic Association. In addition to performing surgeries he performs research into prostate cancer. He has presented his research at medical conferences around the world on a regular basis. His goal is to figure out why prostate cancer occurs and how to most successfully help men become cancer free. One of the big difficulties of prostate cancer Dr. David Samadi says is that when it is in its preliminary stages there aren’t any symptoms. He says men need to be tested for this disease because if prostate cancer is detected early 90% of men will get cured of this disease.

Dr. David Samadi performs around 15 prostate surgeries every week and about 500 each year. He says that robotic surgery is far superior to conventional surgery and will be how surgery is performed in the future. The problem with conventional surgery is that doctors have to make a large incision which can lead to complications such as infections, pain, blood loss, and nerve damage. Robotic surgery, meanwhile, is minimally invasive and the chances of complications occurring are far lower. He says that prostate nerves aren’t damaged which means that things like bladder control and sexual function will be maintained.