In 2009, two years after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, former prime minister Ehud Olmert announced he would undergo surgery to remove the tumor in the United States, with the aid of a da Vinci robot. His announcement introduced the public to the four-armed technological wonder used to perform complicated surgery in place of a human surgeon.
- By Nathan Cherny
- 07 Aug 2012
- 08:38PM
There are 10 randomized controlled studies (the "gold standard" for testing scientific validity and effectiveness) regarding robotic surgeries , but none of them show that robotic surgery is better than traditional surgery, said study researcher Dr. Marty Makary, an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland. During a robotic surgery, a surgeon uses a computer to move instruments that are attached to robotic arms. "No study has demonstrated an improvement in postoperative complication rates," Makary told MyHealthNewsDaily. Oftentimes, hospital websites made claims based on studies unfairly comparing robotic surgery to the more outdated open surgery, which is when the surgeon cuts open the skin to gain direct access to the internal organs. Doctors don't often mention robotic surgery's effectiveness compared with the more commonly used minimally invasive surgery , which is associated with better outcomes than open surgery, said Makary, who is also the author of an upcoming book on transparency in medicine. The study was published May 18 in the Journal for Healthcare Quality
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