Residents' Views on the Impact of Robotic Surgery on General Surgery Education

Objective: The use of the da Vinci Robot has been fast growing in general surgery in the United States over the past decade. While the financial cost of robot-assisted procedures has been studied, there has been limited research on the educational cost of the robotic approach on general surgery trainees, and their surgical skills.

Design: Analysis of anonymous educational survey responses collected from residents, in addition to case logs which were used as a retrospective review for the 5 years preceding the survey.

Setting: One thousand bed, tertiary care hospital general surgery residency program.

Participants: Twenty-four enrolled general surgery residents in 2018.

Results: There has been a rapid expansion in the use of robotics in general surgery. In 2017 the total number of general surgery cases using the da Vinci robot increased 6 fold over that in 2013 (23 cases in 2013, 136 in 2017), while both open and laparoscopic procedures have witnessed about a 33% drop in the case volume during those years. Almost all residents would prefer a residency program which offers the da Vinci robot for care and training (95%), however, 38% of general surgery residents reported that the presence of robotic-assisted surgery had a "detrimental" effect on their surgical training. Senior residents were more likely to report a "detrimental" effect (56% vs 27%). A third of the residents believe that robotic surgery is impeding their ability to learn open and laparoscopic surgical techniques, and only 25% denied a negative impact. Senior residents are more likely to report this negative impact (67% vs 13%).

Conclusions: Reforms in residency curricula need to be in place to accommodate the expansion of the use of the robotic platform in general surgery. A subjective survey of the residents suggests that robotic surgery can potentially impede the development of residents' open and laparoscopic surgical skills.