Robotic surgery on the cutting edge.(Gynecologic Surgery)

PHOENIX, ARIZ. -- It may seem unfathomable to them now, but there was a time when the surgeons at the Mayo Clinic Hospital mulled the possibility that an operating room robot might wind up in a corner, collecting dust.

"It is not an insignificant purchase. We wanted to know whether robotics was a technique that offered any advantages for our patients that our current techniques could not," recalled Dr. Javier F. Magrina during an interview.

The fear was that surgeons would try out the toy and then return to their tried and true surgical ways.

Fast forward 2 years.

Mayo Clinic gynecologic, urologic, and general surgeons are now pressing for the purchase of a second da Vinci robot, this one with an extra arm and a higher price tag.

The first robot is in such demand, it is spoken for on every day of the month at this desert hospital. Waiting lists for elective robotic procedures are too long to suit Dr. Magrina and his surgical colleagues.

"In a short period of time, the robot has proved to have so many advantages that we could not go back to the way we used to do things," said Dr. Magrina, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and coordinator of gynecologic robotic surgery at the hospital.