When it comes to robotic surgery, the emperor is not wearing any clothes. I don’t believe there has ever been a series that has conclusively shown that the robot has made any difference in patient outcomes or quality of the procedure. I believe that it is a technology that enables surgeons who cannot otherwise perform the procedure to perform the procedure. That’s been shown in the urology literature, particularly.
What’s going on in my community and others throughout the country is a terrible abuse of this technology, where we have doctors in our local hospitals taking out ovaries with this technology, taking out a uterus, and who are doing single-site robotic cholecystectomies in 4 hours at $4,000 in cost. They’re using robotic technology to do simple procedures that could otherwise be done better and faster without this technology.
We need to be outspoken and realistic about the use of robotic surgery. We need to advance this technology, but carefully and with a caveat.
Dr. Jeffrey L. Ponsky is professor and chairman of the department of surgery at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. He made his remarks as a discussant at the meeting.
AT THE ASA ANNUAL MEETING
He reported having received an honorarium from Medtronic on a single occasion for participation in a symposium on minimally invasive pancreatic surgery.
