diff --git a/Formula/vtk.rb b/Formula/vtk.rb
index 607726a045..39fa2a823f 100644
--- a/Formula/vtk.rb
+++ b/Formula/vtk.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 require 'formula'
 
 class Vtk < Formula
-  url 'http://www.vtk.org/files/release/5.6/vtk-5.6.1.tar.gz'
+  url 'http://www.vtk.org/files/release/5.8/vtk-5.8.0.tar.gz'
   homepage 'http://www.vtk.org'
-  md5 'b80a76435207c5d0f74dfcab15b75181'
+  md5 '37b7297d02d647cc6ca95b38174cb41f'
 
   depends_on 'cmake' => :build
   depends_on 'qt' if ARGV.include? '--qt'
@@ -17,11 +17,6 @@ class Vtk < Formula
   ]
   end
 
-  def patches
-    # fixes compilation issue on Mac OS X 10.7
-    "http://vtk.org/gitweb?p=VTK.git;a=patch;h=70db254a59c18a5e565c3232813dc821bb337563;hp=0c5990f503fe8f6e5f1a07b85b804dcc4262a6ed"
-  end
-
   def install
     args = std_cmake_parameters.split + [
              "-DVTK_REQUIRED_OBJCXX_FLAGS:STRING=''",
@@ -30,8 +25,8 @@ class Vtk < Formula
              "-DBUILD_TESTING:BOOL=OFF",
              "-DBUILD_EXAMPLES:BOOL=OFF",
              "-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON",
-             "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH:STRING='#{lib}/vtk-5.6'",
-             "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_NAME_DIR:STRING='#{lib}/vtk-5.6'"]
+             "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH:STRING='#{lib}/vtk-5.8'",
+             "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_NAME_DIR:STRING='#{lib}/vtk-5.8'"]
 
     if ARGV.include? '--python'
       python_prefix = `python-config --prefix`.strip