New surgical robots are about to enter the operating theatre

ROBOTS have been giving surgeons a helping hand for years. In 2016 there were about 4,000 of them scattered around the world's hospitals, and they took part in 750,000 operations. Most of those procedures were on prostate glands and uteruses. But robots also helped surgeons operate on kidneys, colons, hearts and other organs. Almost all of these machines were, however, the products of a single company. Intuitive Surgical, of Sunnyvale, California, has dominated the surgical-robot market since it...