Cancer surgery patients fare better with robot surgeons

PATIENTS facing major abdominal operations should be offered robotic surgery because the procedure leads to quicker recovery and less time in hospital, a study has found.

Researchers discovered that patients who had robot-assisted bladder cancer surgery recovered faster and were sent home sooner than those who had open surgery, which involves large incisions in the skin and muscle.

Robotic surgery, in which surgeons guide minimally invasive instruments remotely, reduced the chance of readmission by 52% and revealed a 77% reduction in the prevalence of blood clots when compared to open surgery patients.

The team from University College London and the University of Sheffield involved in the trial for the study said their findings challenged the idea that open surgery is the ‘gold standard’ for major operations.