Penn Today Online

Clinical Briefing: Robotic Partial Nephrectomy for Renal Cell Carcinoma
Urologists at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) are now performing robotic partial nephrectomy surgery for patients with renal cell carcinoma. A recent addition to the expanding robotic surgery program at Penn, robotic partial nephrectomy surgery greatly reduces blood loss, postoperative pain and patient recovery time when compared to standard open surgery.

Clinical Briefing: Minimally Invasive Thyroidectomy for Follicular Neoplasm
Penn Head and Neck Cancer Surgery recently introduced a variety of minimally invasive techniques for thyroidectomy that substantially reduce the impact of open thyroid surgery for patients requiring diagnostic interventions for follicular neoplasms. About 80 percent of these growths are benign nodules, cysts and hyperplastic growths; the remainder are papillary or follicular carcinomas.

Clinical Briefing: Prosthetic Replacement for Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Degeneration
The Penn TMJ and Facial Pain Clinic is one of a handful of centers nationwide offering the Lorenz Total TMJ Replacement System prosthesis for functional reconstruction of the temporomandibular joint in patients with severe late-stage degeneration of the disc and condyle refractory to conservative treatment, arthroscopy and arthroplasty.

Clinical Briefing: Nonsurgical Treatment of Desmoid Tumors
Desmoid tumors are classified as benign fibromatous neoplasms, but are extremely aggressive, locally invasive, destructive and often very painful. Eradication can be achieved by radical surgery with high dose (>50 Gy) external radiation, but this combination often results in disfigurement and considerable morbidity.

Clinical Briefing: Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery
The development of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at Penn reflects the coming of age of the emerging subspecialty of orthopaedic traumatology. Trained to treat patients with complex polytrauma or abnormal healing processes, the surgeons of the Penn Orthopaedic Trauma Service specialize in surgery for sudden, severe musculoskeletal trauma, reconstruction for periarticular fractures, long-term rehabilitation for debilitating post-traumatic sequelae (including fracture non-union and chronic osteomyelitis), and treatment of complex pelvic and acetabular fractures.