Robotically Assisted Adnexal Surgery on the Rise despite Increased Complications, Costs

​Robotically assisted adnexal surgery is associated with a statistically significant increase in intraoperative complications and substantially greater costs when compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery, according to the results of a study published in the November 2014 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study, which used a nationwide database to analyze the rate of use, resulting complications, and cost of robotically assisted and laparoscopic adnexal surgery among 87,514 women from 2009 to 2012, found that performance of robotically assisted oophorectomy increased from 3.5% to 15.0%, whereas robotically assisted cystectomy increased from 2.4% to 12.9%. For oophorectomy, the overall rate of complications for robotically assisted procedures was 7.1%, compared with 6.0% for laparoscopic procedures.