Ask the doctor: Is robotic surgery better?

Q. A hospital in the area is advertising robotic surgery. Is it really any better than having a surgeon do the operation?

A. The first robotic surgery was performed over in the mid-1980s. Now thousands of operations are being done with the assistance of robots. A better term might be robotic instrumentation because, ultimately, there's always a human surgeon with his or her hands on the controls.

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