Throughout history, science has made crucial advancements related to surgical procedures, anesthesia, and pain management. Over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen are widely accessible options for this issue, but these often fall short in managing intense pain. Stronger alternatives such as opioids can cause severe secondary effects like addiction, physical dependence, respiratory depression, immune system dysfunction and hormonal imbalance, among other risks. The challenge lies in the fact that instead of addressing the root causes of pain, we rely on solutions that mask it, typically with unfavorable side effects and harmful interactions. Imagine a future where post-operative pain is minimized or even eliminated entirely. This is where technology transforms medicine, evolving the surgical process. Approaching surgical precision, robotic surgery is the most promising solution to reduce post-operative pain by redefining surgical techniques, addressing pain at its source, offering a future of improved recovery experiences.

The rise of the technological era has made robotic surgery the best option for this problem. With its less invasive and more precise procedures, operations that used to be highly complex and risky can now be executed safely while causing minimal tissue damage to the body, allowing a faster and painless recovery. Consider a scenario where a clot has formed unnoticed in your veins, traveling quickly to your lungs, until it’s too late, and your life is at major risk.

This situation might appear uncommon, but it’s not. For instance, a family acquaintance faced a life-threatening pulmonary thrombosis: He was a fifty-three-year-old man who lives a healthy life and exercised constantly without pushing himself to extreme limits, he also has a regular healthy diet. But from one moment to another he started feeling weak. It was difficult for him to breathe. We ran to the hospital, and the medics treated him with all they could. It was a long wait, two days, my brother and I were frightened. The only updates about his health and his pulmonary thrombosis we could get were from a close relative, he was the only one allowed to stay with him at the hospital. Fortunately, the doctors were able to save his life; by creating a two-centimeter incision in his left groin, they were able to introduce a tube with a camera in which they managed to get to the correct veins and with a vacuum they extracted the clot satisfactorily. After the operation, the doctors informed us that the robotic surgery technique they used was a huge factor that determined his survival. This case exemplifies how robotic surgery is transforming medicine, offering safer, less invasive, and life-saving options for patients worldwide. This is just one of countless scenarios in which robotic surgery has proven its salvific potential and impact on healthcare.

A study conducted by a group of surgical researchers at McGill University in Quebec, Canada; demonstrated how Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), is a key element to diminish postoperative pain. In the study presented, three hundred and thirty-three patients who underwent robotic surgery for the treatment of endometrial cancer were tracked; each patient’s electronic medical record about the timing , dose, and type of analgesic administered postoperatively were collected. The collected information was compared to a matched historical group of patients who underwent laparotomy (an open surgical procedure) before the introduction of a robotic program. The results, as expected, showed a significant difference related to postoperative pain. Only 2.4% (eight) of patients received patient-controlled analgesia, the vast majority of patients’ pain was alleviated by over-the-counter analgesics. Compared, the difference between the amount of analgesic use was significant: Laparotomy patients used 71 mg of intravenous morphine (on average), while robotic surgery patients who underwent MIS used 12 mg of intravenous morphine (on average). It is also important to highlight that these results were also observed in elderly and obese patients, which are usually groups of individuals that tend to be more sensitive to post-operative pain.

People might argue that the economic cost necessary to participate in a robotic surgical procedure is too high to be “worth it”; but it is necessary to consider the fact that these types of surgeries are so effective that the necessities for paying expensive over-the-counter medications like opioids is no longer necessary. Also, long term medications for covering pain is no longer necessary either, because of the MIS, and as well the need for possible long term medication caused by the overuse of opioids is no longer a risk.

It is groundbreaking to know that this radical change is possible, and that the experience after a surgical procedure is now much more comforting. This can be applied to kids all the way through elderly individuals, from people with obesity problems or anorexia, with allergies to analgesics or nervous diseases that will undergo these procedures without a harmful recovery. With this revolutionary technological and medical evolution, it is realistic to imagine a future where you can get into a medical procedure that used to be involved into a painful recovery experience; and be able to walk away from the hospital the next day with minimal or no pain at all. The amount of lives able to be saved and transformed by this technological, and medical innovation, are substantial.

References:

Abitbol, J., Cohn, R., Hunter, S., Rombaldi, M., Cohen, E., Lessors, R., & Gotlieb, W. H. (2017). Minimizing pain medication use and its associated costs following robotic surgery. Gynecologic Oncology, 144(1), 187–192. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27839789/

Diana, M., & Marescaux, J. (2015). Robotic surgery. British Journal of Surgery, 102(2), e15–e28. https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-abstract/102/2/e15/6141447?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false

Cleveland Clinic. (2024). Opioids: What they are, side effects & disorders. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/21127-opioids

MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Pain relievers. https://medlineplus.gov/painrelievers.html

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