Robotic surgery is expensive but showing promise for head and neck cancers

    The da Vinci Si surgical robot is definitely a super expensive tool so there is a need to study if it’s worth to have surgical robots in the hospitals. An earlier study indicated that robotic surgery was better for head and neck cancer patients to regain the ability to swallow, while compared with standard laser microsurgery.

      University of Alabama-Birmingham,USA has carried out another study recently with the intention to prove if robotic surgery is more effective in terms of curing the patients. 89 patients had their cancer removed by the da Vinci robot and the survival rate (86.3%), was comparable to standard surgical approaches. This result is encouraging and show robotic surgery offers a technically feasible and oncologically sound alternative treatment for some head and neck cancer patients.