Between 2000 and 2013, robotic equipment played a role in 144 surgery-related deaths in the United States, according to an analysis of records kept by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The findings were first presented at the annual meeting of the The Society of Thoracic Surgeons as a retrospective on the state of robotic surgery.
First approved by the FDA in 2000, the use of robots in surgery has risen dramatically in the past decade, with 1.7 million procedures completed between 2007 and 2013. For example, robotic systems took part in only 0.5 percent of hysterectomies—removal of the uterus—in 2007; that figure jumped to 9.5 percent in 2010.
The use of robots in surgery has risen dramatically in the past decade, with 1.7 million procedures completed between 2007 and 2013.
