Markus,
Dr. Smith at Vanderbilt has by far the most experience on Da Vinci's then Dr. Herrell. Dr. Herrell has been Dr. Smith's assitant on the Da Vinci for hundreds of procedures being the one that is at the operating table. Dr. Herrell was not the assistant on my surgery so he may have started doing Da Vinci's on his own. In terms of number of Da Vinci's done over the last two years I believe that Dr. Smith has done more then Menon or Tewari. When I scheduled my surgery Dr. Smith's RN that does the scheduling told me that he has done Da Vinci's on men that come to Nashville from around the world. He is in high demand and has a surgical backlog stretching out for 3 to 4 months. One thing for you to know and I think all Da Vinci surgeons have you sign a release that gives them permission to change the surgery to an
open procedure if for any reason they come across something that is not expected.
Tamu
Diagnosed 7/6/06
1 of 10 core samples, 40%
Stage T1c, Gleason 3+3
Da Vinci on 11/01/06
Catheter out on 11/13/06
56 Years Old
Post Op Path
Gleason 3+3
Approx. 5% of prostate involved
Prostate Confined, margins clear
Undetectable PSA on 12/18/06
No more pads as of 1/13/07