Robotics · Medical Robotics
Surgical Robot Procedures
From 136,000 procedures a year to over 3 million: robotic surgery becomes routine.
- ~23× growth since 2008
- YoY growth slowing: 18% → 15%, 2025-26
- General surgery drives growth
- Rivals arriving, but Intuitive still leads
Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci has performed the vast majority of robot-assisted surgeries since it cleared the US FDA in July 2000, after first being used clinically in Europe from 1998. Annual procedures grew from approximately 136,000 in 2008 to 3,153,000 in 2025, a ~23× expansion in 17 years. The series starts in 2008 because that is the first year Intuitive published a numeric annual procedure count; its earlier filings gave only running cumulative totals in words (over a thousand procedures in all by the end of 2000, tens of thousands by the end of 2005), a different measure that cannot be placed on an annual axis.
Growth is decelerating even as the count climbs: 2025 itself grew 18%, then reported da Vinci procedure growth ran 16% in the first quarter of 2026 and 15% in the second, with Intuitive guiding to 13.5–15.5% for the full year and expecting to land near the midpoint. The installed da Vinci fleet reached 11,710 systems worldwide by mid-2026, each averaging 200 to 400 procedures a year. Urology and gynaecology were the early use cases; general surgery (hernia, colorectal, bariatric) now drives growth. Medtronic’s Hugo, CMR Surgical’s Versius and J&J’s Ottava are entering the market, but the large majority of the world’s robot-assisted operations are still done on a da Vinci.
| Year | Value | Note | Projected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 136,000 | first published annual count | |
| 2009 | 205,000 | ||
| 2010 | 278,000 | ||
| 2015 | 652,000 | ||
| 2018 | 1,037,000 | 1M procedures/yr | |
| 2020 | 1,243,000 | ||
| 2022 | 1,875,000 | ||
| 2023 | 2,286,000 | ||
| 2024 | 2,683,000 | 2.7M procedures | |
| 2025 | 3,153,000 | 3.15M, +18% YoY |