Robotic surgery is a novel form of laparoscopic (key hole) surgery. Its main advantage over traditional laparoscopic surgery is that it allows for much more complex procedures (which would have otherwise been performed through traditional open surgery) to be performed in a key hole approach. The main reason the robotic system allows for this is that the instruments used to perform the procedure have ‘wrists’ thereby providing the surgeon with greater dexterity than traditional laparoscopic surgery where the instruments are not ‘wristed’.

As for laparoscopic surgery, the main advantages of robotic surgery include less post-operative pain, lower blood loss and shorter hospital stay.