Robotic surgeries are types of surgical procedures that are done using robotic systems. Robotically assisted surgery was developed to try to overcome the limitations of pre-existing minimally-invasive surgical procedures and to enhance the capabilities of surgeons performing open surgery.

The first robot to assist in surgery was the Arthrobot, which was developed and used for the first time in Vancouver in 1985.

This robot-assisted in being able to manipulate and position the patient’s leg on voice command. Intimately involved were biomedical engineer James McEwen, Geof Auchinleck, a UBC engineering physics grad, and Dr. Brian Day as well as a team of engineering students. The robot was used in an orthopedic surgical procedure on 12 March 1984, at the UBC Hospital in Vancouver. Over 60 arthroscopic surgical procedures were performed in the first 12 months, and a 1985 National Geographic video on industrial robots, The Robotics Revolution, featured the device. Other related robotic devices developed at the same time included a surgical scrub nurse robot, which handed operative instruments on voice command, and a medical laboratory robotic arm. A YouTube video entitled Arthrobot- the world’s first surgical robot illustrates some of these in operation.

However, robotic surgery has been criticized for its expense. This technique has not been approved for cancer surgery as of 2019 as its safety and usefulness need to be improved.

According to Wikipedia