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May 16, 2013 Robot-assisted surgeries have changed the medical landscape for patients with certain diagnoses, including some types of cancer. Commentator Barbara J. King looks forward to meeting her robot surgeon next week and getting the job done.

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April 23, 2013 KHNHysterectomy are among the most common surgical procedures for women. With the advent of surgical robots, more doctors and women are opting for that approach. Does a robot, which costs more, make it better?

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February 28, 2013 Want to be a better surgeon? Get your game face on. A study finds that surgical residents who played video games for an hour a day performed better at simulated keyhole surgeries than colleagues who refrained.

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February 26, 2013 Conventional wisdom holds that summertime — when medical students graduate and become first-time doctors — is the most dangerous time to check into a hospital. But a recent study of surgeries at 1,700 hospitals suggests the fear of newbie docs is overblown.

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February 11, 2013 When researchers asked hospitals how much a total hip replacement would cost a 62-year-old woman paying cash, a surprising number couldn't or wouldn't say. Health care could learn something from the car industry about working with consumers, critics say.

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January 14, 2013 Figuring out when an athlete with damaged knee ligaments can get back in action is an inexact art at best. Doctors have various ways to mend a busted knee, but the results, like car mileage, can vary.

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December 10, 2012 Stroke is usually a problem that comes with age, but a surprising number of children have strokes, too. Many kids have conditions that put them at higher risk. But surgeons have developed a technique that cuts the risk in some of these kids by giving part of the brain a new blood supply.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

November 20, 2012 More than 40 percent of surgical complications occur after patients are at home. The solution for the problem isn't keeping patients in the hospital longer, researchers say. Better instructions to patients and improved monitoring could help.

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October 7, 2012 Spinal Elements, a small and growing company, had long made plates, screws and other technology used in spinal surgeries. But its new Hero Allograft was the first product it ever made from the tissue — in this case the bones — of a donated human cadaver.

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September 26, 2012 There are a lot more older people with worn-out knees, and the rate at which those people get knees replaced has gone way up in the last 20 years, too.

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July 30, 2012 About 1 in 500 people has a concave chest wall, a condition known as pectus excavatum, or sunken chest. A new experimental procedure could provide an alternative to painful and invasive surgeries for children.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

July 18, 2012 A study of more than 700 men with prostate cancer found no difference in rates of death among men who had their prostates surgically removed compared to those who didn't. The findings suggest that men with low-risk cancers could forgo surgery.

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July 2, 2012 Some of the 100,000 people who have donated a kidney in the past six decades say the donation has left them with debilitating health and financial problems. And they say the health care system doesn't do enough to document their cases or issue them sufficient warnings.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

June 27, 2012 A piece of fruit can be a terrific stand-in for a patient during doctors' surgical training. And while there are high-tech simulators on the market, one researcher believes skills crucial to minimally invasive surgery might be better taught with something as simple as a clementine.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

April 30, 2012 There were robots everywhere at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington this past weekend. Robots shot baskets. There was a wheeled R2-D2 robot at the CIA's booth. And then there were surgical robots that let future doctors — and patients — try their hand at tasks requiring pinpoint accuracy.

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