Opinion: Robotic surgery—da Vinci versus the ideal

When the da Vinci Surgical System was introduced in 2000 by Intuitive Surgical, it was heralded for ushering in a new era of robotic surgeries. The robot promised to make operations easier for the surgeon, reducing complications and pain while shortening time under anesthesia and time to recovery for the patient. Now, it appears that the robotic reality is introducing some cracks in these perspectives. Since it was approved by the FDA, the da Vinci Surgical System has been installed in about 2,000 hospitals in the United States, performing 367,000 procedures just last year, according to Intuitive.