In a 2013 article published in the December issue of Journal of Gastric Cancer titled “Emerging Role of Robot-assisted Gastrectomy: Analysis of Consecutive 200 Cases.”, a team of researchers led by JY Park “aimed to evaluate whether gaining experience in robotic gastrectomy could improve surgical outcomes in the treatment of gastric cancer.”  In recent years, surgical robots (particularly those by Da Vinci) have become increasingly common in the operating room, and this study wanted to evaluate their safety and efficacy for gastrectomy – surgical removal of all or part of the stomach.

In this study, researchers evaluated how well the procedure went for the first 100 patients seen at a certain center (while surgeons were still learning to use the surgical robots) and another 100 patients who were operated upon once surgeons were better trained with surgical robots.

Results showed that “Twenty patients developed postoperative complications. Thirteen were managed conservatively, while 6 had major complications requiring invasive procedures. One mortality occurred owing to myocardial infarction.”

Research demonstrating rates of complications as high as 20% demonstrates that though sometimes robotic surgery is safe, it is absolutely not in all cases.  It was in fact shown by this paper that rates of complication and length of surgery time and hospital stay decreased with surgeon training, but regardless, these rates of complications are exceedingly high.

Due to the fact that Da Vinci, the manufacturer of many popular surgical robots has failed to adequately warn of the risk for complications without extensive surgeon training, merely “recommending” that surgeons be trained, a number of Da Vinci surgical robot lawsuits have been filed by patients who faced complications after surgery.

If you or a loved one underwent surgery in which Da Vinci surgical robots were used, you may be entitled to compensation for injury or undue risk of injury you endured.  For a free, no-obligation case consultation, contact our team of Da Vinci Surgical Robot lawyers at the information provided below.  We have the experience, resources, and skills required to win the justice you deserve.

(855) 452 – 5529

justinian@dangerousdrugs.us