The last 20 years have seen a paradigm shift in minimally invasive surgery with the introduction and adoption of robotic surgery. The robotic landscape has been dominated by the Davinci surgical system manufactured and sold by Intuitive Surgical. There are now over 6000 Davinci systems in operation that have performed 8.5 million procedures worldwide. The Davinci install base has seen historical annual growth rates of around 12%. Globally, the largest proportion of robotic surgery occurs in General Surgery. The global robotic surgery services market grew from $0.73 billion in 2021 to $0.86 billion in 2022. The robotic surgery services market is expected to grow to $1.59 billion by 2026. New competitors in the space continue to emerge as they attempt to enter this market. Medical and technology firms including Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and CMR Surgical are among the few.

In urological oncology, where robotic procedures have rapidly become the standard of care, surgery has been revolutionized. In 2019, 92% of radical prostatectomies in the US were performed with robotic assistance. Rapid adoption of robotics has led to Medical Schools having specialized robotic Fellowships in various specialties to help Fellows learn how to utilize this technology so they are coming out trained in the most advanced surgical approaches.

Image guide navigation systems combined with a robotic surgery system offers more possibility to visualize and perform the minimally invasive surgery in areas which were earlier difficult, especially the orthopaedic and neuro surgeries. The Mazor X Stealth system by Medtronic and the NuVasive’s Pulse and Excelsius GPS by Globus Medical us navigation systems to perform spine surgeries and orthopaedic implant surgeries such as total, partial knee, and hip replacements.