“Introduced commercially a little more than a decade ago, robotic surgery is becoming more routine in hospitals and is the preferred method for patients who need to have a prostate or cervix removed as well as a host of other procedures. In the last four years, the number of hospitals nationwide using the da Vinci robot has risen by more than 80 percent, and the number of procedures performed each year has risen by 300 percent to more than 300,000 operations each year, according to the multi-billion dollar company.”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/robots_playing_larger_role_in.html