3 ms·

Compare "144 deaths... more than 1.7 million robotic procedures" to "3.7 million surgical procedures at 102 hospitals in the Netherlands during 1991 – 2005, pos

Compare "144 deaths... more than 1.7 million robotic procedures" to "3.7 million surgical procedures at 102 hospitals in the Netherlands during 1991 – 2005, postoperative mortality from all causes was observed in 67,879 patients" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perioperative_mortality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perioperative_mortality) Seems like a huge improvement over non-robotic procedures, though, the comparison is obviously flawed.

dogma1138 11y ago
This is about as meaningless as not comparing it to anything. A valid comparison would be comparing the operations conducted with robotic assistance to a similar operation conducted using traditional means. When there is no comparable treatment e.g. if there is no traditional surgery for the same endoscopic robotic procedure than the effectiveness of alternative treatment's needs to be investigated. Other things needs to be accounted as well mostly post-op deaths and lasting side effects, endoscopic surgeries are known for having less severe effects at the post op stage as they do not affect as much tissue as a traditional surgery. On the other hand endoscopic surgeries tend to miss things that might be apparent in a traditional surgery such as additional conditions or secondaries since a traditional surgery gives a much "wider" view of the well the insides as well as getting additional information the tactile feedback from touching the actual tissue. Another data sets which will be interesting to see is what is the damage or loss of life due to waiting for robotic procedures as they require special equipment and specially trained surgical and support staff. And there are probably countless other valuable data sets which us non-medical professionals can't even begin to fathom, but comparing a narrow field of surgery conducted in the states to general surgery information in the Netherlands is pretty meaningless to my eyes...

dogma1138 11y ago

This is about as meaningless as not comparing it to anything. A valid comparison would be comparing the operations conducted with robotic assistance to a similar operation conducted using traditional means. When there is no comparable treatment e.g. if there is no traditional surgery for the same endoscopic robotic procedure than the effectiveness of alternative treatment's needs to be investigated. Other things needs to be accounted as well mostly post-op deaths and lasting side effects, endoscopic surgeries are known for having less severe effects at the post op stage as they do not affect as much tissue as a traditional surgery. On the other hand endoscopic surgeries tend to miss things that might be apparent in a traditional surgery such as additional conditions or secondaries since a traditional surgery gives a much "wider" view of the well the insides as well as getting additional information the tactile feedback from touching the actual tissue. Another data sets which will be interesting to see is what is the damage or loss of life due to waiting for robotic procedures as they require special equipment and specially trained surgical and support staff. And there are probably countless other valuable data sets which us non-medical professionals can't even begin to fathom, but comparing a narrow field of surgery conducted in the states to general surgery information in the Netherlands is pretty meaningless to my eyes...