title: Robotic surgery is ready for prime time in India: Against the motion.
abstract: The use of Robotic Surgery as a purported adjunct and aid to Minimal Access Surgery (MAS) is growing in several areas. The acknowledged advantages as also the obvious and hidden disadvantages of Robotic Surgery are highlighted. Survey of literature shows that while Robotic Surgery is "feasible" and the results are "comparable" there is no convincing evidence that it is any better than MAS or even open surgery in most areas. To move "Robotic Surgery is ready for prime time in India" with no less than two dozen robots, many sub-optimally utilized for a population of 1.2 billion seems untenable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Minimal Access Surgery, Hinduja Hospital, Veer Savarkar Road, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Tehemton E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Udwadia
keywords: Robotic surgery; cost benefit ratio; outcome comparisons; robotics; surgical priorities in developing countries