Rating Robotic Surgery

Does robotic surgery beat a human hand for hysterectomy? And if it does, at what cost?

Those were the questions posed by researchers at Columbia University, who analyzed data from nearly 265,000 women who had hysterectomies between 2007 and 2010. What they found? The number of laparoscopic procedures done through small incisions increased from 24-percent in the first quarter of 2007 to 30-percent in 2010.

But the most significant trend, according to researchers, the rise of robotic-assisted hysterectomies. Robotic surgeries accounted for 0.5 percent of cases in 2007, but by 2010 they had increased to 9-and-half percent.

There was really no difference in the complication rates and the outcomes between women who had a laparoscopic compared to a robotic hysterectomy. On average the cost of robotic hysterectomy was over 2200 dollars greater than laparoscopic hysterectomy. One in nine women in the United States will have a hysterectomy during her lifetime.

I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV, with the news that can help you stay healthy, happy, and fit.

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