Robot Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery

The question on today’s society is always “where will it end?” when referring to technology. There are cars that talk, phones that unlock your car, and 3D TVs. Why even bother moving off the couch?

The newest advancement in medicine is Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy. In simpler terms, a robot is performing the surgery instead of the doctor. At first glance you might wonder if the robot has a M.D. like the doctor, but after reading more about this robot surgery I feel that parts of it can make sense.  However, technology is not something you can always trust. 

The positives to the robotic surgery include reduction in blood loss, pain, recovery time and the unwanted side effects of other treatments. The doctor, a trained robot surgeon, who has had practice with the controls of the robot, doesn’t need to manually cut open the patient because the robot, whose universal name is Da Vinci makes a tiny incision, making the patient more comfortable. After watching a video on how the surgery works, I learned that the doctor is standing many feet away from the patient, using a hand controller, like a video game to perform the surgery. This does not look reassuring.

The first question that comes to mind is how can you trust a robot over the experience of a human? What if the robot malfunctions during the surgery? And does the doctor blame the robot if something goes wrong? These questions are vital when performing something with such risk, like a robot. I want to know if the patient is introduced to the robot instead of the doctor because the doctor is officially behind the scenes. There is so much risk involved with technology and the thought of something going wrong with a robot does not bring a sense of comfort to this newest advancement. 

This makes me wonder if flying cars will exist one day. But there is a difference between useless status technology like phones that turn the lights on in your house and technology that can help patients. Technology is speeding ahead with great force and it has no intentions of stopping.

Allison Roth
Communications Studies
Wilkes 2011