Using frozen fraction (neurosave) during surgery for nerve sparing?
A high standing surgeon at a top German clinic informed me that during the DaVinci surgery they do a frozen fraction of nerves (neurosave If I'm not mistaken) and they quickly check them during the surgery to see if there are mets. Then they decide to remove the nerves or do a nerve sparing operation.
I might have made a mistake describing it, but how common is this practice and where can I learn more about it?
Has anyone heard about it?
I work in the United States and have never treated anyone who had underwent the NeuroSAFE procedure. So, I was curious and did some digging around in the research world. In 2018, a study was performed which compared men who had had the NeuroSAFE procedure versus men who had traditional prostatectomies with nerve sparing. This study found that the men who had NeuroSAFE had improved specificity of surgical margin rates, as well as improved erectile function and pad-free continence 12 months later.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29124889/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6575674/
But then I found this next study, published in 2019. This study appears to be still ongoing and no conclusive data has been gathered to establish the NeuroSAFE as being superior to traditional prostactomy with nerve sparing. It has a lengthy study and hard to read, so I don't recommend plowing through it if you have better things to do with your time. 😀
