Hi Carmine,
I saw a video at a conference last May, of experts doing cystectomy with Da Vinci. The biggest drawback at this moment is that the 'state of the art' of bladder replacement is a neobladder (esp. for men...women have slightly more complications), but the Da Vinci and/or laparoscopic patients are ending up with more ileal conduits or continent reservoirs (like the Indiana pouch).
The other question is whether the long term outcome is equal to that of open surgery and the answers aren't in yet, not enough time has passed.
So, yes, DaVinci just might limit the type of procedure-meaning that instead of the neobladder you might end up with one of the other types of diversions.
Have you read the 'cystectomy' section on WebCafe? There are a lot of pages covering all the types of diversions.
blcwebcafe.org/cystectomy.asp
Let your doctor totally convince you, remember that this is still an experimental procedure. Ask if it's a clinical trial.
One good thing about it is that if your surgeon is trained for using DaVinci he must be a very good and experienced surgeon at a very good institution!
Keep us posted and best of luck with making your decision.
Wendy
