According to a study published in Pediatrics, using robots for surgery is safe, but provides no better outcomes for child patients.
Robotic surgery systems, such as the da Vinci allow surgeons to more easily do less invasive surgeries, as well as reduce human error like shaking hands. A major hurdle for the da Vinci to overcome is the several million dollar price tag which accompanies it. News that child patient outcomes from robot assisted surgery may not be greater than outcomes from conventional surgery could mean less hospitals will choose to purchase such expensive equipment.
da Vinci Robot Performs Mock Surgery Image:Flickr/karmalaundry
Robotic surgery systems are commonly praised for reducing hospital stays for patients undergoing hysterectomies and prostate procedures. It is unlikely these procedures were the ones used in the medical studies, since such surgeries are generally only needed with older patients.
To illustrate the power and accuracy of robotic surgery systems, take a look at this video of a Japanese surgeon folding origami which is smaller than a penny.
[http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=9097053]
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Don’t top-end doctors get paid in the neighborhood of half a million dollars a year? MRI machines are several million dollars as well. I imagine these will be slow in the uptake with results information like this, but cost isn’t really the limiting factor at this point.
I think you’re right that it doesn’t seem like a large cost for a hospital to pay in comparison to other costs, but hospitals would still have to pay out over a million dollars up front, train surgeons, and agree to a $100k/yr maintenance agreement, all on top of additional expenses. Buying one might be hard to justify if the budget is small and the benefit of their use wasn’t universal, as the study in Pediatrics suggests.
These robots are supposed to be super good for minimally invasive hysterectomies and prostatectomies, so I suppose that they will soon be used widely because of success in those areas.
A robot is robot we can’t trust on its mechanism ofter all if it’s dealing in surgery then we must think of it very well other wise what will happen will happen