Telesurgery Feasible for Urological Robotic Operations

THURSDAY, Feb. 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Telesurgery is noninferior to local surgery for urological robotic operations, according to a study published online Jan. 28 in The BMJ.

Ye Wang, from the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues investigated whether the success of telesurgery is noninferior to standard local surgery in patients undergoing urological robotic operations. The analysis included 72 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy or partial nephrectomy who were randomly assigned to telesurgery or local surgery.

The researchers found that telesurgery was not inferior to local surgery in terms of the probability of surgical success in the intention-to-treat population, when accounting for clustering by surgeon (success probability difference of 0.02 with Bayesian posterior probability of 0.99 for noninferiority). With distances from 1,000 to 2,800 km, the telesurgery system was stable and had a mean roundtrip network latency of 20.1 to 47.5 ms and frame loss of 0 to 1.5 per telesurgery. There were no significant differences between the two groups for the secondary outcomes of operative basic data, complications, early recovery, oncological outcome, and medical team workload.

“We found no clear evidence of clinically important differences in the operative process, complications, or early recovery,” the authors write. “This trial provides important evidence and reference for future larger cohort studies to explore the comprehensive benefits of telesurgery in clinical application.”

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