Robotic Surgery: The Future as I See It

Since the introduction of surgery, attempts have been made to minimise the associated morbidity and mortality. With that has come the advent of minimally invasive surgery and over the past two decades robotic surgery. Intuitive’s da Vinci has been the main robotic platform in minimally invasive surgery for the last 20 years. It is mainly used for prostate, bladder, kidney and gynaecological surgery; however, the range of surgeries being done robotically is continuing to expand. With many of the patents for the Intuitive da Vinci due to expire in 2019, many other robotic surgical systems have been in development [1]. The next generation of robotic surgical platforms claims to be more versatile, compact and cost effective, and because of this, significant change in the landscape of robotic surgery is likely to occur imminently. Reference 1. Rassweiler JJ, et al. Future of robotic surgery in urology. BJU Int. 2017;120(6):822–41.