Critical Outcomes in Nonrobotic vs Robotic-Assisted Cardiac Surgery

Outcomes of robotic vs nonrobotic cardiac surgery were evaluated using 1:2 propensity score matching of patients in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.  Operations included valves/septae (10%), coronary arteries (47%), and other.  Mean costs were 7.5% higher for robotic cases.  Robotic procedures had shorter length of stay (5 vs 6 days), lower mortality (1.0% vs 1.9%), and fewer complications (27% vs 30%).