FDA Investigates Robotic Surgery Effectiveness

Robotic surgery has been under the microscope in recent weeks as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration looks deeper into surgeon survey reports claiming the da Vinci robotic surgical system is linked to at least five deaths in the past year, according to a report by Kaiser Health News.

Currently, health insurers pay for FDA-approved robotic surgeries at comparable rates as those paid for human-conducted operations, but that could change as more data is gathered and analyzed to demonstrate when robotic procedures give the greatest benefits at the lowest costs, according to the report.

Touted as having shorter patient recovery times and fewer post-operative complications, some studies such as one published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found the robotic method was more expensive than other forms of minimally invasive surgery performed with human hands, without significant improvements in other patient comfort or health measures.

Several medical groups, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have claimed current research does not show enough evidence that robotic surgery is more beneficial, cheaper or safer than other alternatives.

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