Judging from the comments, it seems that many people are confused about this. From what I see in practice: the reasons stated in the OR to choose the robot amo

Judging from the comments, it seems that many people are confused about this. From what I see in practice: the reasons stated in the OR to choose the robot amount in most part to increasing the surgeon's comfort. The additional degrees of freedom in instrument motion, and the stereoscopic vision are very much appreciated. In addition, believe me when I say that hype is a major drive. Robots are often presented as "the most advanced technology", and this resonates with the patient expecting a high level of care and feeling important. It is true that the robot is sometimes chosen for difficult cases, but it is a question of reassurance and comfort for the surgeon more than anything else. Operations being (much) longer is not without consequence on patient outcome, and no operation done with a robot could not be done without. Secondly, current robots are absolutely not geared at automation. The surgeon is in control at all times, and the machine does not perform any preprogrammed move. Even worse, to my knowledge there is no robot providing haptic feedback on the market, so that you have to rely on vision for many things which would normally be done using the sense of touch (tightening sutures, for example). From the point of view of the anesthesiologist, the whole robot story is actually a bit sad and seems to add very little for a huge investment in both money and logistics.