Robotics in Healthcare: All About the Benefits of Robotic Surgery

Are you surprised to learn that the first robot-assisted surgery was in 1985? A PUMA robot used a CT-guided needle for a brain biopsy. Since then, doctors and patients have reaped the benefits of robotic surgery — sometimes without the patient being the wiser.

Today, robotic surgery is routine and always improving. What is robotic surgery, and what is a robotic surgery machine? What are the benefits of robotic surgery?

Keep reading to find the answers!

What Is Robotic Surgery?

If robotic surgery conjures the image of a bipedal AI robot working alongside doctors, you can purge that image from your brain. To see some examples of robotic surgery and its capabilities, you can visit this website.

Generally, like the PUMA that performed the first surgery, these robots are human-controlled arms. Human hands get fatigued and shake. For large-scale operations, this isn’t so much of a big deal.

When you’re working next to delicate, important arteries and nerves with sharp instruments, lasers, and cauterizers you’d better be steady. Nerves of steel and being cold-as-ice under pressure only get you so far. There are limitations to what a doctor’s own fingers can do.

Robotic surgery is a type of surgery that is minimally invasive. The surgeon sits at controls that translate finger, wrist, and hand movements to guide instruments working on the microscale.

The Benefits of Robotic Surgery

As you can imagine, having a surgeon with nerves of steel and steady hands is still important. These robotic extensions only help a good surgeon to be better. The most apparent benefits of robotic surgery include:

• A more precise surgery
• Better clinical outcomes
• Less scarring
• Less chance of infection
• Minimal blood loss
• Shorter recovery periods
• Quicker discharge times from the hospital
• Better views of the affected area for the surgeon
• Greater control and dexterity
• Less use of pain medication

As you can see, the many-fold benefits only begin with these major points. Smaller incisions and increased precision mean less pain. This means less hospital time and less medication to reduce pain.

Since opioid painkillers are a major problem in the USA and the world, reducing the usage of opioids in main management is always a plus. Many people prefer not to use them at all, if possible, to reduce the risk of addiction.

Since it costs 50,000 people their lives per year, this is a priceless benefit. But, the cost of opioid abuse on the economy can be measured at $78.5 billion a year. Between 21%-29% of patients prescribed opioids have been found to misuse them.

The benefit of reduced pain and pharmaceutical dependence is an often-overlooked major benefit.

Robotics in Healthcare: Only the Beginning

The benefits of robotic surgery are clear. Robotics are continuing to move into all aspects of medical care. This is especially true with the advancement of the internet of things or IoT.

Want to know how more technology is entering the medical world, as well as our everyday lives? Keep reading our articles for the latest in tech news!