Purpose of review: The landscape of robotic surgical systems in urology is changing. Several new instruments have been introduced internationally into clinical practice, and others are in development. In this review, we provide an update and summary of recent surgical systems and their clinical applications in urology.
Recent findings: Robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery is increasingly becoming a standard skillset in the urologist's technical armamentarium. The current state of the robotic surgery market is monopolized because of a number of regulatory and technical factors but there are several robotic surgical systems approved for clinical use across the world and numerous others in development. Next-generation surgical systems commonly include a modular design, open access consoles, haptic feedback, smaller instruments, and machine learning.
Summary: Numerous robotic surgical systems are in development, and several have recently been introduced into clinical practice. These new technologies are changing the landscape of robotic surgery in urology and will likely transform the marketplace of robotic surgery across surgical subspecialties within the next 10--20 years.