When people hear that a robot might be handling part of their surgery they sometimes get a little nervous. They might picture a doctor off sipping coffee while the Star Wars movie character R2-D2 stands over them with a scalpel.

A visiting expert in robotic surgery told The Royal Gazette this scenario is far from the case.

Dr Ernesto Cardenas of Bay Shore Women’s Healthcare in Florida was in Bermuda this week to talk with local physicians about the benefits and advances in robotic surgery. Dr Cardenas is an OBGYN specialising in maternity and robotic surgery.

One of the criticisms of robotics in surgery is that it typically takes longer than with other surgeries, in some cases, twice as long. Dr Cardenas said this had more to do with the skill level of the person using the robotic arm rather than the robotic arm itself.

“As with any surgical tool, there is a learning curve,” said Mr Cardenas. “Initially, when you switch from traditional laparoscopy to robotic surgery, your first 25 cases might take you 20 to 30 minutes longer. Generally, when you reach the 25 case mark the surgeries actually go quicker than with laparoscopy. At this point in my career I am much quicker with the robot than with laparoscopy surgery.”

He said the robotic arm has many uses in the OBGYN arm of medicine, such as in hysterectomies. With the robotic arm, the incision scar after a hysterectomy is smaller compared to an operation using laparoscopy and the pain during recovery is less.

Dr Cardenas said he was exposed to the robotic equipment a bit later in his career because he was in the military for 12 years.

“Even though the robot was developed to be used by the military in telemedicine, it was never used because it was impractical. Where I was, I did the best I could with laparoscopy. I was very proficient at it and was comfortable with laparoscopy, but once I was introduced to the robot it opened up new worlds as to what I could do. It was the natural progression in how I evolved in surgeries that I was doing.”

To train to use the robot, Dr Cardenas had to do a two-day live animal lab using the robotic arm. He familiarised himself with the equipment and took a test. Then he had to proctor with a robotically certified surgeon for his first ten cases. He now supervises other surgeons who are just learning to use the equipment.

“A patient can choose not to use the robot,” he said. “Each patient needs to be informed of what the surgical approach will be. I have never had a patient decide not to have the robotic surgery..”

He said it probably wouldn’t be a good option for Bermuda to have a robotic arm at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. The robotic arm costs about $2 million dollars and is expensive to maintain.

“There is only one in the Dominican Republic,” he said, “and about 20 in Latin America. There are at least 1,000 in the United States. We would refer someone in Bermuda who needed the surgery with a robotic arm to a centre that has it in the US.”