Robotic Surgical Technology Advancements

I remember the days when being a great surgeon meant having precise, steady hands. Once the steadiness started to go, so did a surgeon’s practical career. Now, as advancements in computers and robotics continue, new surgical systems allow smaller incisions and less invasiveness, which will result in shorter recovery time, and is sure to be a game changer for the medical field.

Personally, I have never had any kind of surgery that required large incisions, but of course have seen plenty of people that have. My wife had surgery to remove her gall bladder a couple of years ago, and I was surprised at just how little the incisions were for the procedure in comparison to my expectations. Now, with even more advanced, newer systems from Intuitive Surgical like the da Vinci Surgical System, doctors have some of the most advanced, least invasive technology at their fingertips. While some of these systems have been on the market and in use since around 1999, they have always required multiple incisions to accommodate the camera and various tools. The newer, advanced single incision edition is the latest breakthrough in technology. 

As doctors sit at a separate console looking through a state-of-the-art set of computer lenses, they are able to see a high-definition, magnified view of the procedure. Their finger movements are scaled down to become precise movements for the smaller robot arms that are inserted into the patient through one small incision.

In a recent New York Times article on this system, an even newer system is reportedly in development by Titan Medical Inc. that will offer some major competition for the Intuitive Surgical system. This new Titan system will insert a robotic instrument through an incision of only 15 millimeters. Once inside, the instrument unfolds into a camera system and two little arms for performing the surgery.

The biggest question mark for this technology is the cost. Can the costs of these systems be justified enough to gain widespread use? While using this technology is almost always an advantage over traditional surgery, it is not always the best choice cost wise. While having a patient stay in the hospital for shorter periods after a surgery can save a hospital money, it has yet to be proven that this savings will make up for the close to $2 million cost for the equipment, or the $100,000 a year to maintain the systems.

While the technology is not quite there yet, one potential avenue this could bring in the future is the ability for a doctor to perform operations on a patient while he is miles away. This idea is briefly discussed in a related article on the site How Stuff Works, which states, “A major obstacle in telesurgery has been latency -- the time delay between the doctor moving his or her hands to the robotic arms responding to those movements. Currently, the doctor must be in the room with the patient for robotic systems to react instantly to the doctor's hand movements.” If this is overcome, it could bring additional savings associated with using this technology.

While all of this may be exciting news for most, Health News Review reports that there are some that are still skeptical of the recent news, calling out The New York Times article as nothing more than promotional and puff, providing no real data to back up the claims. While computers are not taking over for real surgeons, questions are raised about how this type of procedure will effect the surgical education for the intern who no longer gets to be there performing the surgery with the surgeon.

Maybe it is too early to call, but while this technology offers promise, until such a time comes when the costs and efficiency are fully worked out in the data, the wide-spread use and approval of these systems may be limited.

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