According to a study conducted by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), the use of robots to perform surgery has led to multiple deaths and injuries within a period of 14 years. The issues that led to these deaths include broken pieces falling into bodies of patients, the burning of patients, in addition to “uncontrolled movement”.

According to a team of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rush University Medical Center, robotic surgery is quite popular, but many complications are linked to it.

As per the team, “Device and instrument malfunctions have affected thousands of patients and surgical teams by causing complications and prolonged procedure times”. It is not possible to completely eliminate these malfunctions, however according to the researchers, modifications in the design and operation of such robotic systems “may reduce these preventable incidents in the future”.

As per reports, using robotic systems for some kinds of surgeries is a comparatively new method; however, researchers from MIT, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Rush University Medical Center have used them for long in order to come up with findings on “adverse events in robotic surgery”. According to the researchers, so far, no comprehensive study has been conducted in order to know about the safety and reliability of surgical robots systems.

Robots are broadly used in gynaecology and urology. Their use is less in complex surgeries like cardiothoracic surgery that involves lungs, heart or oesophagus.