Robotic Surgery

"This article highlights a serious problem in modern medicine: the general acceptance of a new medical approach based on aggressive advertising citing uncertain studies. It becomes unimportant whether a surgeon feels that the robotic approach is unlikely to yield better or even equal results to a traditional method. The patient, as a consumer, has already been convinced. We thus see still more increased expense in spite of the uncertainty of the method’s usefulness and the sharp learning curve associated with it, even for experienced surgeons." - Henry
"It's become popular because of the media and patients have been asking for it more for minor surgeries, even though it is typically more expensive and is unproven whether it has better outcomes than traditional surgeries. One of the doctors interviewed for the article attributes this mostly to marketing." -Teresa

On one level, robot-assisted surgery makes sense. A robot’s slender arms can reach places human hands cannot, and robot-assisted surgery is spreading to other areas of medicine.
But robot-assisted prostate surgery costs more — about $1,500 to $2,000 more per patient. And it is not clear whether its outcomes are better, worse or the same.
One large national study, which compared outcomes among Medicare patients, indicated that surgery with a robot might lead to fewer in-hospital complications, but that it might also lead to more impotence and incontinence. But the study included conventional laparoscopy patients among the ones who had robot-assisted surgery, making it difficult to assess its conclusions.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/health/14robot.html?ref=health

Henry Dust and Teresa Vodopest