What are the technical advantages of Robotic surgery?
In minimally invasive surgery, the surgeon’s hands are outside the body and operating instruments have to be necessarily long to reach internal organs. Controlling these long precision instruments can be a challenge at times, particularly by tired hands. The Da Vinci operating robotic systems comes with robotic arms which are fully under the surgeon’s control down to millimeter movement and never tires.

The instruments are specially designed with added dexterity in allowing internal manoeuvres not possible with standard laparoscopic instruments. The 3-dimensional telescopic view gives surgeon not only clarity in details but also perception of depth. All these advantages allow surgeons to perform surgery in enhanced precision, which is translated into better surgical outcomes.

What are the clinical advantages of Robotic surgery?
Robotic surgery is a form of minimal invasive surgery (MIS). The advantages of MIS over conventional open surgery are undisputed. MIS causes less pain, bleeding and wound infection and significantly speedier recovery without compromising efficacy.  Robotic surgery, with the 3-dimensional high definition view and added precision and dexterity, allows surgeons to perform certain technically challenging operations with ease and precision yielding consistently good functional outcome.

As an example, prostatectomy for prostate cancer is associated with a risk of post-operative erectile dysfunction and urine incontinence. Generally, robotic prostatectomy is associated with lower incidence of these complications.