Critical Outcomes in Nonrobotic vs Robotic-Assisted Cardiac Surgery

Using propensity score matching techniques, outcomes and costs for robotic cardiac surgery were compared to open cardiac surgery using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.  Robotic surgery was more expensive ($39,030 vs $36,340) but was associated with a shorter length of stay (5 vs 6 days), lower mortality (1.0% vs 1.9%), and lower overall complication rates (27.2% vs 30.3%).