Surgeons on England鈥檚 National Health Service (NHS) will be able to use state-of-the-art robotic systems that will improve the care of patients undergoing a range of procedures.
A total of 11 systems are set to be used across the health service after positive recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Five robotic systems have been greenlit for soft tissue procedures such as hernia repair, removal of tumours, and gall bladder removal. These include Da Vinci systems developed by Intuitive Surgical, Medtronic鈥檚 Hugo, Asensus Surgical鈥檚 Senhance, and CMR Surgical鈥檚 Versius. A further six systems have been recommended for knee or hip replacement procedures.
NICE said the devices can be used while further evidence demonstrating their cost-effectiveness is collected over the next three years.
Some robotic systems such as Da Vinci allow surgeons to perform procedures using mechanical arms controlled from a nearby consolewhile others are handheld. Surgical instruments attached to robotic arms have greater dexterity and precision than a human hand, NICE says. Evidence demonstrating the ability of robotics to improve patient outcome in surgeries is extensive.
NICE commented that the technology will improve recovery times, reduce complications, and potentially increase access to these procedures.
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By GlobalData鈥淩obot-assisted surgery is crucial to the future of high-quality healthcare 鈥� and with benefits including shorter stays in hospital, faster recovery for patients and less invasive procedures, these advancements will have a knock-on effect throughout the system and help patients get treated quicker,鈥� said Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director.
鈥淭his is a further milestone in surgical innovation, and we are currently working hard to develop a national strategy that ensures patients across the country are able to access this treatment when they need it, regardless of location,鈥� said John McGrath, consultant urological surgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust, and chair of the NHSE Steering Committee for Robotic Assisted Surgery.
A primary hurdle to an earlier rollout was largely down to cost. Surgical robot systems cost between 拢500,000 ($662,000) and 拢1.5m ($1.98m) and have previously only been used in specialist centres. More than a decade ago, urological cancer was the largest use case of the technology. But now, robotic systems are being used in a variety of other conditions. A big jump in the use of the technology is with orthopaedics 鈥� a total of 4,000 robot-assisted surgeries took place last year, up from 300 in 2018-2019.
Intuitive has the largest share of the global robotic surgery market, according to analysis by GlobalData. Shares in the Nasdaq-listed company rose 0.7% at market open following the news.
The market was estimated to be worth $2.9bn in 2024 and is forecast to reach $9.2bn by 2034. Medtronic and CMR Surgical have emerged as competitors to Intuitive鈥檚 market share in Europe with approvals for Hugo and Versius, respectively.
