The da Vinci won federal approval in 2000, making it the only low-trauma surgical robot on the market. Since then, more than 867 have been installed at hospitals worldwide, 647 of them in the USA, at a cost of $1.5 million apiece, says the robot's maker, Intuitive Surgical. This year, doctors worldwide will perform roughly 130,000 da Vinci procedures, from bypasses to prostatectomies to hysterectomies, up from 85,000 last year, according to company estimates.The robotic results were remarkable, Srivastava says. "In the first beating-heart procedure I did in the U.S., the patient went home in 23 hours and drove (from Texas) to Arizona in one week," he says.He's now done about 350 robotic bypasses, 60 in Chicago. "We've been able to complete the surgery in 99% of patients. Only twice have we had to split the sternum because of problems. We've had zero wound complications. Since you're not touching the sternum, there's no problem with healing."Death rates dropped too, Srivastava says. "The average mortality for bypass surgery is 1.5% to 2%. Our mortality is 0.3%."
Artikeln skrevs 2008 och fortfarande behövs en läkare som styr roboten, men hur länge till?
