Robot-assisted surgery can cut blood clot risk and speed recovery

Patients having major abdominal operations should be offered the option of robotic surgery, doctors and scientists have said, after a world-first clinical trial found the procedures dramatically speed up recovery times, reduce complications and cut the risk of blood clots.

In a first-of-its-kind three-year study, experts at University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield discovered that patients having robot-assisted bladder cancer surgery recovered faster and returned home sooner than patients who had open surgery. The findings were presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robotic surgery reduced the chance of readmission by half (52%), and led to a 77% reduction in the prevalence of blood clots, when compared with patients who had open surgery. Researchers said the findings challenged the notion that open surgery was the “gold standard” for major operations.

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