Operations using surgical robots are becoming the method of choice in many surgical specialties. There are centers where a significant proportion of procedures in some specialties are performed using surgical robots. One such center is Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London.

The presentation discusses issues related to the rapid development of this technology in medicine and the resulting challenges for anesthesiologists.

Topics covered include:

• A brief history of robotics and its application in surgery
• Examples of different systems currently available on the market
• Review of the applications of surgical robots on the example of Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London
• Problems related to anesthesia for surgery using a surgical robot on the example of a commonly performed radical prostatectomy procedure.