Robotic surgery – a taste of Hollywood?

Robotic surgery is a new and promising technique. Numerous authors believe it to be as revolutionary as laparoscopy or thoracoscopy [1]. Let us try to analyze if this is really the case. Multiple instruments, very useful in some cases, have been introduced. They are still being developed and are sometimes far from perfection. Very many centers worldwide perform robotic procedures and publish their results. The cost of the procedure versus the benefit for the patient is the most often mentioned issue. Radical prostatectomy and some cardiac surgical procedures appear to be the most frequent indications. Robotic-assisted surgery is a new method requiring conscientious analysis of the previous results. The method is still being developed and it is difficult to state which indications are beneficial for patients. Surgeons must try to avoid marketing operations behind some of the indications of companies producing robotic instrumentation. Otherwise, the first robotic surgery centers will be seen as “a real taste of Hollywood”.

For the first time the word “robot” appeared in 1921 in one of the theatre plays by the famous Czech writer Karel Čapek and was derived from the Czech word robota, literally meaning “work”. The author created a world of intelligent robots, which were supposed to help people at work, make it simpler and perform some of the chores faster. Additionally, these creatures were to be intelligent and form their own society. In Karel Čapek’s play at first they helped people, then they became more and more intelligent. Finally they evolved into highly intelligent creatures and decided they did not need humans at all. Of course, the play is almost 100 years old, but it is worth giving it a thought and although robots nowadays are not an intelligent and self-aware species, they help us a great deal. They precisely perform special operations in the production process and dangerous industrial procedures, participate in the production of micro and nano processors used for example for computer parts, they are used for exploration of the Universe or sea bottom, and last but not least they are also employed in medicine. The first surgical procedures (mainly cholecystectomies), remote surgical procedures (Lindbergh trans-Atlantic procedure – a surgeon from New York performed his surgery on a patient in Strasburg) would not have been possible without their help [2]. Generally, the use of robots in medicine has been accepted and robotic...


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