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More than 140 people have died due to surgeries performed by robots
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Over 140 people have died because of surgical robots in thirteen years. As statistics show, robotic interventions pose a great danger to human health and life, especially during surgical interventions on the neck, head, heart (in such cases, mortality is 10 times higher, compared to other types of operations). Such data were published on the website of the library of one of the largest US universities from the Ivy League.
The study was conducted by specialists at one of the major clinics in the United States, located in Illinois (Chicago). The experts studied the risks of robotic surgery based on data from the Food and Drug Administration. The administration's database contains data on all unsuccessful cases that occurred during operations performed by robots, as well as reports from medical centers that are provided voluntarily.
In the process of studying the data, experts found that 1,500 out of 10,000 reports contain information about severe consequences that occurred after robotic surgical interventions. At the same time, experts note that the numbers may be significantly higher, since the management statistics are not complete. In the process of work, experts noted several types of the most dangerous actions of robotic machines, including possible fire, sparking, which caused harm to 193 patients, accidental ingress of robot parts or their parts into the patient's body cavity (burned, broken, etc.), which harmed more than 100 patients and led to 1 death, uncontrolled movements of equipment, which led to 2 deaths, as well as system errors (for example, loss of video), which caused an incorrectly performed operation in more than 800 cases.
Over the course of thirteen years (from 2000 to 2013), 144 people died due to robotic surgical interventions, 60% of all deaths were due to equipment failure, the rest due to human factor (the surgeon) and the general risk of such an operation.
The experts also noted that in the total number of surgical interventions since 2007, the proportion of unsuccessful operations has remained unchanged.
In addition, the experts emphasized that they did not compare the number of complications that arise after surgical interventions performed by a robot and a person.
Two years ago, doctors from the University of Johns Hopkins conducted another study on a similar topic. The specialists analyzed more than 240 thousand reports on colectomy (removal of part of the intestine), which were carried out in clinics in the United States. As a result, the specialists noted that robotic operations in terms of the number of complications, mortality and time of postoperative hospital stay are not very different from the method widely used in medicine - laparoscopy (an operation performed through small - up to 1.5 cm - openings).
At the same time, robotic surgery costs patients an average of three thousand dollars more than the services of a surgeon.
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