The downside
The disadvantages of any robotic system? Certainly, cost — acquisi-
tion cost, ongoing maintenance costs, restocking fees, all sorts of
things. But here's the thing. Until very recently there's been no compe-
tition in this sector of the market. If you wanted to do robot-assisted
abdominal surgery, you had one choice. They charged what they
charged; if you could afford it, you got one. Now that there's competi-
tion with the Senhance system and several others coming in the next
few years, it'll drive costs down. Senhance already has an overall
lower cost profile than da Vinci does.
Having said that, the Senhance is still a first-generation unit.
They've already provided us upgrades, like a higher-resolution moni-
tor, updated eye-tracking technology to move the camera and soft-
ware upgrades to make motions smoother. More refinements will be
made — for example, advanced bipolar electrocautery and articulat-
ed instruments. That's the deal with surgical robots — the technolo-
gy is always advancing to address surgeons' needs and, most impor-
tantly, improve patient outcomes.
OSM
4 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 9
Dr. Trivedi (atrivedi@optonline.net) is chairman of the Department of Surgery
at Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center, Pascack Valley, and a surgeon at
Advanced Laparoscopic Associates in Paramus, N.J.