Prostate cancer came calling at Joe Sikes' house this fall. With it came the two biggest worries that men face with prostate surgery: the possibilities of losing sexual function and bladder control.

"I've talked to a few men who’ve had it for over a couple years,” said Sikes. “They still have to wear male diapers or Depends, whatever they call it."

Impotence and incontinence are the most common complications of traditional surgeries. Microscopic nerves around the prostate can be damaged during the open procedure and Sikes knew someone who'd experienced that.

"It's been four to five years ago; he's never been able to go back to work,” said Sikes.

Sikes’ diagnosis came just in time for a new era in prostate surgery, with the arrival of the da Vinci robotic surgical system. A company based in California, Intuitive Surgical, has been selling the systems for about eight years, gradually gaining approval for them to be used in more and more surgeries.

"There was no comparison,” said Sikes.

The machine is a masterpiece of technology that comes alive inside the operating room. Scrubbed in and masked, just like the surgeons, the arms of the da Vinci robot are moved into place.

Small incisions in the patient make way for the robotic tools. While one surgeon assists bedside, another surgeon works the robot's arms from across the room with his own arms and legs.

"Every time I pinch my index finger and thumb together, the instrument will close and cut,” said robotic urologic surgeon Dr. David Anderson. "Every time I push my foot down, it will fire an electrical current.”

The robot magnifies its pictures.

"Everything you see is 10 times smaller than it appears on the screen," said Anderson.

It’s also incredibly precise.

"Again, the biggest advance is seeing those delicate neurovascular bundles," the surgeon said.

Surgeons are thrilled to have the technology at their fingertips now.

"It certainly has, in the last few years, become the state-of-the-art way to treat prostate cancer,” said Dr. Howard Follis.

"Now, when you have the ability to tell a man he's going to go home the next day after an operation like this, and have a catheter out in a week, it's a better option for him,” said Anderson.

It’s much better than the traditional eight- to 10-day hospital stay.

"He convinced me,” said Sikes.

Now, almost two weeks out of his own surgery, Sikes is even more convinced this new technology gave him a head start on the road to a full recovery.

"I feel like I could go back to work right now. I was walking two miles a day within three days after I got out of the hospital,” he said. "Knowing what other people went through and what I went through, it doesn't seem to be any comparison to it."

The da Vinci robotic surgical system has been available in Kansas City, St. Louis, and other university medical centers for several years. Until now, patients here in the Ozarks have been referred to those other cities for this state-of-the-art surgery. Now the million-dollar DaVinci system is available at both Cox South and St. John's hospitals.

It’s also not just for prostate surgery. Urologists have already performed kidney surgeries with it, and gynecologists are using it for hysterectomies as well as other procedures. It's just the newest most precise way to operate now.