UroToday – EAU 2007 – AUA Lecture at the EAU 2007 – “The Role of Robotics in Urology”
The market is primarily coming from patient “advertising” to other patients by word of mouth and use of the internet. The perceived benefit is likely based upon decreased blood loss and quicker recovery. He hypothesized that this leads to decreased surgical and medical complications. Complications have a negative impact on hospital reimbursement. Based upon Medicare data, Begg in the NEJM in 2002 found that the complication rate from open radical prostatectomy was 28-35%. In a study by Dr. Lu-Yao, the surgical complication rates were virtually identical and medical complications were about 13-20%. Pure laparoscopic prostatectomy series report complication rates of about 11%. In his robotic data, medical complications were <1%.