A brief overview of the development of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RP) has gained remarkable worldwide distribution and has become a standard procedure for localised prostate cancer, indeed a new 'gold standard'. There are proven advantages in reduced blood loss and shorter recovery time. Whilst case series publications often report improved functional outcomes, systematic hospital and healthcare data analyses mostly do not support these findings. Robotic surgery remains more costly. Its use has also increased knowledge about the anatomy of RP.