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healthcare research firm
in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
He cites these statistics:
• There are 3,000 robot-
ic systems in ORs nation-
wide.
• They're used to per-
form 500,000 procedures
each year.
• 85% of all prostatec-
tomies performed in
the United States are done robotically.
With this year's launch of the da Vinci Xi, Intuitive Surgical has positioned
itself to target the growing demand in the general surgery market, says Dr.
Schabowsky. He says performing colorectal surgery with the da Vinci Si, the
platform's previous generation, was particularly difficult because the procedure
requires changing out ports as you move up and down the abdomen. The da
Vinci Xi features robotic arms attached to a boom, so instead of moving the
entire robot to different positions along the table, you keep the robot locked in
place and swivel the boom to move the robot's arms to different ports.
"You can argue if it was a business decision or a decision to bring the clinical
benefits of robotics to another specialty, but Intuitive has targeted increasing
the robot's use for cholecystectomy and colorectal surgery," says Dr.
Schabowsky.
He notes that several competing manufacturers are in the process of bringing
new robotic platforms to market.
• SurgiBot. TransEnterix's SurgiBot is a hybrid between traditional minimally
invasive surgery and a robotic platform. Dr. Schabowsky says surgeons operate
at the patient's side through a single port using robotic arms that resemble con-
• DOCTOR DROID Vipul R. Patel, MD, who touts the clinical
benefits of robotic surgery, is bullish on the technology's future.
Florida
Hospital
