The Fuss About Robotic Surgery

There has been a lot of talk recently about whether robotic surgery is being oversold as a money maker for hospitals and as a panacea for patients. Having just had a robotic procedure done, my sense is that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In my case, I think the robotic approach was definitely the right call. While it was expensive, it offered several advantages over traditional surgery: first, as an experienced robotic surgeon, my doctor was able to work with closer margins and more precision in performing my surgery; second, the recovery time was much faster than it would have been otherwise. So I am happy. 

A recent study done by Johns Hopkins indicates that complications from robotic surgery may be underreported. If these findings are borne out, they would be problematic to be sure for the makers and users of surgical robots, especially given their cost. In my case, I had no complications. With a less experienced surgeon, who knows if a complication would have arisen?