"Robotic surgery is increasingly being used for women’s hysterectomies, adding at least $2,000 to the cost without offering much benefit over less high-tech methods, a study found....
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Also see: 21st-Century Operating Room
Science fiction movies are the future, folks -- as well as the present.
"Mass. cautions hospitals about robotic surgery; Hospitals get advisory letter" by Liz Kowalczyk | Globe Staff, March 26, 2013
Reports of complications from robot-assisted surgery are rising, according to Massachusetts health officials who sent hospitals an “advisory” letter last week alerting them about their safety concerns.
In some cases, it appears that doctors have used the aggressively marketed robots to perform hysterectomies and colorectal operations that were too complex for the technology, or for the surgeons’ skill level in directing the robots’ actions.
Related: The Globe and the New Media: Demon Seed
During one hysterectomy, two surgeons failed to coordinate their movement of the remote-controlled robotic arms, damaging the patient’s bowel and causing excessive bleeding, according to the letter from the Quality and Patient Safety Division, part of the agency that licenses Massachusetts doctors.
In another hysterectomy, a woman was anesthetized and placed for nearly four hours in a steep head-down angle — a position often used during robotic operations. She suffered shoulder injuries. The advisory described a number of mishaps but did not identify the doctors or hospitals involved.Robotic surgery — in which doctors sit at a video console and remotely move robotic arms holding surgical instruments and a tiny camera — has surged in popularity for prostate operations and other procedures. That’s partly because the manufacturer and hospitals heavily advertise the technology as reducing complications and speeding recovery.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital last fall allowed shoppers to “test drive” a robot outside Macy’s at the Natick Mall, by sitting at the console and manipulating the arms. Community hospitals have jumped on the bandwagon, too. St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford invited the public to get behind the controls of its new robot in January, while others including Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Milton have erected highway billboards.
The hospitals now say they are reviewing some of their marketing activities....
Patient injuries during robotic surgery have grown over the past two years, the division said, but it would not provide the data. The advisory comes amid a growing number of patient lawsuits nationally, some of which allege doctors inexperienced with the robot took so long to complete operations that patients suffered nerve and other injuries from the anesthesia or from the angle of the operating room table.
“The marketing is not based on any data,” said Dr. Peter Dunn, director of perioperative services at Massachusetts General Hospital. “This tool was brought to us [by the manufacturer] solely as a marketing device. The medical community didn’t do what it should have done — say, ‘Wait a minute, hold on.’ ”
Except it is no longer about medicine. It's about money.
Surgeons who are enthusiastic about the technology say it allows them to operate with more precision. The robotic arms move in more directions than the human wrist, and the machine’s software smooths out small hand tremors. Images on the video screen are also highly magnified, allowing the surgeon a better view of the patient’s anatomy. They also tend to be less invasive.
Still, proof that these advantages lead to better results has been elusive. In January, a national medical safety organization, the ECRI Institute in Pennsylvania, concluded based on an analysis of relevant studies that robotic surgery is booming despite limited evidence that it works better than standard operations.
Intuitive Surgical Inc. of California, the manufacturer of the da Vinci robot — the only surgical robot on the market — disputes that assertion....
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Also see: This Post is Tit
